MSDS453 - Research Assignment 01 - First Vectorized Representation

Our goal in this exercise is to BEGIN coming to a common agreement, among this class, as to what terms we will use as we selectively refine our corpus-wide vocabulary. This corpus vocabulary is what would represent the content of each different document for clustering and classification purposes, which will be our next step. This means that we need to make decisions - what is in, what is out.

import pandas as pd
import os
import numpy as np
import re
import string
import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import nltk
import random
from dataclasses import dataclass

from nltk.stem.wordnet import WordNetLemmatizer
from nltk.stem import PorterStemmer

import gensim
from gensim.models import Word2Vec
from gensim.models.doc2vec import Doc2Vec, TaggedDocument

from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import TfidfVectorizer
from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import CountVectorizer
from sklearn.metrics.pairwise import cosine_similarity
from sklearn.manifold import TSNE

import scipy.cluster.hierarchy

from IPython.display import display, HTML

from typing import List, Callable, Dict

Mount Google Drive to Colab Environment

Directories Required for Research Assignment:
1. Data Directory - Source Class Corpus Data
2. Output Directory - Vocabulary

Uncomment To Map Drive

from google.colab import drive
# drive.mount('/content/gdrive/My Drive')
drive.mount('/content/gdrive/')

Drive already mounted at /content/gdrive/; to attempt to forcibly remount, call drive.mount("/content/gdrive/", force_remount=True).

NLTK Downloads

# Only run this once, they will be downloaded.
nltk.download('stopwords',quiet=True)
nltk.download('wordnet',quiet=True)
nltk.download('punkt',quiet=True)
nltk.download('omw-1.4',quiet=True)

True

Gensim is a Python library for topic modelling, document indexing and similarity retrieval with large corpora. Target audience is the natural language processing (NLP) and information retrieval (IR) community

https://pypi.org/project/gensim/

import pkg_resources
#pkg_resources.require("gensim<=3.8.3");

print("Genism Version: ", gensim.__version__)

Genism Version:  4.3.2

Suppress warning messages

def warn(*args, **kwargs):
    pass
import warnings
warnings.warn = warn

Utility Functions

def add_movie_descriptor(data: pd.DataFrame, corpus_df: pd.DataFrame):
    """
    Adds "Movie Description" to the supplied dataframe, in the form {Genre}_{P|N}_{Movie Title}_{DocID}
    """
    review = np.where(corpus_df['Review Type (pos or neg)'] == 'Positive', 'P', 'N')
    data['Descriptor'] = corpus_df['Genre of Movie'] + '_' + corpus_df['Movie Title'] + '_' + review + '_' + corpus_df['Doc_ID'].astype(str)

def get_corpus_df(path):
    data = pd.read_csv(path, encoding="utf-8")
    add_movie_descriptor(data, data)
    sorted_data = data.sort_values(['Descriptor'])
    indexed_data = sorted_data.set_index(['Doc_ID'])
    indexed_data['Doc_ID'] = indexed_data.index
    return indexed_data

def remove_punctuation(text):
    return re.sub('[^a-zA-Z]', ' ', str(text))

def lower_case(text):
    return text.lower()

def remove_tags(text):
    return re.sub("</?.*?>"," <> ", text)

def remove_special_chars_and_digits(text):
    return re.sub("(\\d|\\W)+"," ", text)

@dataclass
class Document:
    doc_id: str
    text: str

def normalize_document(document: Document) -> Document:
    text = document.text
    text = remove_punctuation(text)
    text = lower_case(text)
    text = remove_tags(text)
    text = remove_special_chars_and_digits(text)

    return Document(document.doc_id, text)

def normalize_documents(documents: List[Document]) -> List[Document]:
    """
    Normalizes text for all given documents.
    Removes punctuation, converts to lower case, removes tags and special characters.
    """
    return [normalize_document(x) for x in documents]

@dataclass
class TokenizedDocument:
    doc_id: str
    tokens: List[str]

def tokenize_document(document: Document) -> TokenizedDocument:
    tokens = nltk.word_tokenize(document.text)
    return TokenizedDocument(document.doc_id, tokens)

def tokenize_documents(documents: List[Document]) -> List[TokenizedDocument]:
    return [tokenize_document(x) for x in documents]

def lemmatize(documents: List[TokenizedDocument]) -> List[TokenizedDocument]:
    result = []
    lemmatizer = WordNetLemmatizer()
    for document in documents:
        output_tokens = [lemmatizer.lemmatize(w) for w in document.tokens]
        result.append(TokenizedDocument(document.doc_id, output_tokens))

    return result

def stem(documents: List[TokenizedDocument]) -> List[TokenizedDocument]:
    result = []
    stemmer = PorterStemmer()
    for document in documents:
        output_tokens = [stemmer.stem(w) for w in document.tokens]
        result.append(TokenizedDocument(document.doc_id, output_tokens))

    return result

def remove_stop_words(documents: List[TokenizedDocument]) -> List[TokenizedDocument]:
    result = []
    custom_stop_words = ['film', 'movie', 'ha', 'wa', 'one', 'bond', 'like', 'get', 'character']
    stop_words = set(nltk.corpus.stopwords.words('english'))
    stop_words.update(custom_stop_words)
    for document in documents:
        filtered_tokens = [w for w in document.tokens if not w in stop_words]
        result.append(TokenizedDocument(document.doc_id, filtered_tokens))

    return result

def add_flags(data: pd.DataFrame, equilibrium_doc_ids: List[int], scifi_doc_ids: List[int]):
    data['is_equilibrium'] = data.index.isin(equilibrium_doc_ids)
    data['is_scifi'] = data.index.isin(scifi_doc_ids)

def get_all_tokens(documents: List[TokenizedDocument]) -> List[str]:
    tokens = {y for x in documents for y in x.tokens}
    return sorted(list(tokens))

Loading the corpus

CORPUS_PATH=\
'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/barrycforever/MSDS_453_Public/main/MSDS453_ClassCorpus/MSDS453_QA_20220906.csv'
corpus_df = get_corpus_df(CORPUS_PATH)
documents = [Document(x, y) for x, y in zip(corpus_df.Doc_ID, corpus_df.Text)]

# CORPUS_PATH = './data/MSDS453_Sec57_TestQA_ClassCorpus.csv'
# corpus_df = get_corpus_df(CORPUS_PATH)
# documents = [Document(x, y) for x, y in zip(corpus_df.Doc_ID, corpus_df.Text)]

1. Dataframe = corpus_df
2. List = documents (Document ID, Text)

Exploritory Data Analysis

corpus_df.shape

(200, 9)

corpus_df.head(4).T

Doc_ID	40	41	42	43
DSI_Title	KCM_Doc1_AngelHasFallen	KCM_Doc2_AngelHasFallen	KCM_Doc3_AngelHasFallen	KCM_Doc4_AngelHasFallen
Text	Boredom sets in long before the start of Angel...	\n“Who ARE all these people?”\n\nThat was what...	Ric Roman Waugh’s Angel Has Fallen sees U.S. S...	There is a certain mindless pleasure in the Fa...
Submission File Name	KCM_Doc1_AngelHasFallen	KCM_Doc2_AngelHasFallen	KCM_Doc3_AngelHasFallen	KCM_Doc4_AngelHasFallen
Student Name	KCM	KCM	KCM	KCM
Genre of Movie	Action	Action	Action	Action
Review Type (pos or neg)	Negative	Negative	Negative	Negative
Movie Title	Angel Has Fallen	Angel Has Fallen	Angel Has Fallen	Angel Has Fallen
Descriptor	Action_Angel Has Fallen_N_40	Action_Angel Has Fallen_N_41	Action_Angel Has Fallen_N_42	Action_Angel Has Fallen_N_43
Doc_ID	40	41	42	43

print(corpus_df.info());

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
Int64Index: 200 entries, 40 to 199
Data columns (total 9 columns):
 #   Column                    Non-Null Count  Dtype 
---  ------                    --------------  ----- 
 0   DSI_Title                 200 non-null    object
 1   Text                      200 non-null    object
 2   Submission File Name      200 non-null    object
 3   Student Name              200 non-null    object
 4   Genre of Movie            200 non-null    object
 5   Review Type (pos or neg)  200 non-null    object
 6   Movie Title               200 non-null    object
 7   Descriptor                200 non-null    object
 8   Doc_ID                    200 non-null    int64 
dtypes: int64(1), object(8)
memory usage: 15.6+ KB
None

print(corpus_df['Movie Title'].unique())

['Angel Has Fallen' 'Inception' 'No Time To Die' 'Taken' 'Taxi'
 'Despicable Me 3' 'Dirty Grandpa' 'Holmes and Watson' 'Legally Blonde'
 'The Lost City' 'Drag me to hell' 'Fresh' 'It Chapter Two'
 'The Toxic Avenger' 'US' 'Batman' 'Equilibrium' 'Minority Report'
 'Oblivion' 'Pitch Black']

Number of Reviews By Genre

counts_df = corpus_df[['Genre of Movie']].copy()
counts_df['Count'] = 1
counts_df.groupby(['Genre of Movie']).count().reset_index()

	Genre of Movie	Count
0	Action	50
1	Comedy	50
2	Horror	50
3	Sci-Fi	50

corpus_df.columns

Index(['DSI_Title', 'Text', 'Submission File Name', 'Student Name',
       'Genre of Movie', 'Review Type (pos or neg)', 'Movie Title',
       'Descriptor', 'Doc_ID'],
      dtype='object')

Normalized Document

1. remove_punctuation(text)
2. lower_case(text)
3. remove_tags(text)
4. remove_special_chars_and_digits(text)
5. return Document(document.doc_id, text)

normalized_documents = normalize_documents(documents)
normalized_documents[0]

Document(doc_id=40, text='boredom sets in long before the start of angel has fallen i start my journey to the movie by changing out of my work clothes into something more comfortable instead of something complex like a dress shirt with buttons and a collar along with khaki pants that require a belt i wear a loose fitting t shirt and a light pair of cargo shorts i want something simple and uncomplicated like the plot to an action movie boiled down to guy is framed guy wants revenge guy kills guys for revenge it took only one person to pick out both of my outfits for the day an accomplishment that seems remarkable compared to the three people who wrote the script to angel has fallen completely different from the two people who wrote the story of said movie a total of five people were needed to tell another convoluted story of gerard butler running from slightly bearded men with guns for two hours compared to the minutes it took me to figure out the clothes appropriate for the day it s hard to figure out which effort was more difficult to do or more fun p m and the theater i m going to is across the street from my local mall i ve got a couple hours to kill so i swing by my local newbury comics to see if the new friendly fires record was on shelves they didn t have a copy available and i was disappointed i couldn t see my specific reaction to said news but i think it would look similar to that of morgan freeman throughout angel has fallen once again playing the president of the united states freeman s reactions are a healthy mixture of boredom annoyance disinterest and exhaustion more of the latter actually considering that freeman is comatose and bed ridden for most of the movie i almost felt sorry for such a commanding presence and talented performer to be deemed less important to the film than an elongated chase scene with an wheeler then again he was probably given a significant chunk of the estimated million budget to participate whereas i paid to fill my car with gas and then another for the eventual movie ticket couldn t i have stayed home and napped like morgan freeman i walk through the mall and notice faces passing me by all showing a wide range of emotions joy over a funny conversation frustration over missing out on a sale at american eagle even anticipation over getting the chance to leave the mall and stop carrying so many damn shopping bags it s fascinating to think we as humans are capable of so many feelings to express and it later made me wonder what direction ric roman waugh snitch gave to his actors that had them repress all possible emotions aside from toughness roboticism constipation then again the people i passed at the mall weren t being forced to play out scenarios that are a miraculous combination of convoluted and mundane sometimes those scenarios are so boring that angel has fallen would rather shake the camera and rapidly cut between characters than focus on anything maybe it was out of shame like the kind felt by the guy walking behind his girlfriend carrying four victoria secret bags p m and i felt like enjoying food at the local red robin don t worry they re not a sponsor i just like their burgers helping that burger go down was an ice cold glass of angry orchard a bright spot on a day that was rather uneventful before and after the cider it s nice when the tiniest element of a daily routine is surprising enough to be memorable like engaging in conversation about ea s crooked business strategy with a friendly bartender or nick nolte sporting a santa claus beard stumbling into the movie from the woods to blow up soldiers for butler s character sure he looks confused and overtired running through the trees garbling lines but hey so does butler at least it s funny to see nolte hobble through explosions and rattle his vocal chords to say lines about being paranoid of the government putting machines on his damn lawn or whatever hell if the cannon group kept charles bronson shooting gang members well into his s why will no studio let nick nolte do the same but i finally got to p m the start of the movie regardless of what i was about to endure or how little interest i showed in the movie i was to do my due diligence as a film critic and give the movie a fair shake the opening studio credits came up i blinked and then the movie was over somehow the entire minutes of film that played before me suddenly blinked out of existence in my memory and i felt absolutely nothing from the experience but i just recounted specificities from the movie in the paragraphs how did this happen is my mind collapsing in on itself what more do i have to say oh right angel has fallen sucked ')

Standardize Document

NLTK Tokenizer Package

https://www.nltk.org/api/nltk.tokenize.html

Tokenizers divide strings into lists of substrings. For example, tokenizers can be used to find the words and punctuation in a string:

Functions for Tokenization Process

1. tokenize_document
2. tokenize_documents

tokenized_documents = tokenize_documents(normalized_documents)
tokenized_documents[0]

TokenizedDocument(doc_id=40, tokens=['boredom', 'sets', 'in', 'long', 'before', 'the', 'start', 'of', 'angel', 'has', 'fallen', 'i', 'start', 'my', 'journey', 'to', 'the', 'movie', 'by', 'changing', 'out', 'of', 'my', 'work', 'clothes', 'into', 'something', 'more', 'comfortable', 'instead', 'of', 'something', 'complex', 'like', 'a', 'dress', 'shirt', 'with', 'buttons', 'and', 'a', 'collar', 'along', 'with', 'khaki', 'pants', 'that', 'require', 'a', 'belt', 'i', 'wear', 'a', 'loose', 'fitting', 't', 'shirt', 'and', 'a', 'light', 'pair', 'of', 'cargo', 'shorts', 'i', 'want', 'something', 'simple', 'and', 'uncomplicated', 'like', 'the', 'plot', 'to', 'an', 'action', 'movie', 'boiled', 'down', 'to', 'guy', 'is', 'framed', 'guy', 'wants', 'revenge', 'guy', 'kills', 'guys', 'for', 'revenge', 'it', 'took', 'only', 'one', 'person', 'to', 'pick', 'out', 'both', 'of', 'my', 'outfits', 'for', 'the', 'day', 'an', 'accomplishment', 'that', 'seems', 'remarkable', 'compared', 'to', 'the', 'three', 'people', 'who', 'wrote', 'the', 'script', 'to', 'angel', 'has', 'fallen', 'completely', 'different', 'from', 'the', 'two', 'people', 'who', 'wrote', 'the', 'story', 'of', 'said', 'movie', 'a', 'total', 'of', 'five', 'people', 'were', 'needed', 'to', 'tell', 'another', 'convoluted', 'story', 'of', 'gerard', 'butler', 'running', 'from', 'slightly', 'bearded', 'men', 'with', 'guns', 'for', 'two', 'hours', 'compared', 'to', 'the', 'minutes', 'it', 'took', 'me', 'to', 'figure', 'out', 'the', 'clothes', 'appropriate', 'for', 'the', 'day', 'it', 's', 'hard', 'to', 'figure', 'out', 'which', 'effort', 'was', 'more', 'difficult', 'to', 'do', 'or', 'more', 'fun', 'p', 'm', 'and', 'the', 'theater', 'i', 'm', 'going', 'to', 'is', 'across', 'the', 'street', 'from', 'my', 'local', 'mall', 'i', 've', 'got', 'a', 'couple', 'hours', 'to', 'kill', 'so', 'i', 'swing', 'by', 'my', 'local', 'newbury', 'comics', 'to', 'see', 'if', 'the', 'new', 'friendly', 'fires', 'record', 'was', 'on', 'shelves', 'they', 'didn', 't', 'have', 'a', 'copy', 'available', 'and', 'i', 'was', 'disappointed', 'i', 'couldn', 't', 'see', 'my', 'specific', 'reaction', 'to', 'said', 'news', 'but', 'i', 'think', 'it', 'would', 'look', 'similar', 'to', 'that', 'of', 'morgan', 'freeman', 'throughout', 'angel', 'has', 'fallen', 'once', 'again', 'playing', 'the', 'president', 'of', 'the', 'united', 'states', 'freeman', 's', 'reactions', 'are', 'a', 'healthy', 'mixture', 'of', 'boredom', 'annoyance', 'disinterest', 'and', 'exhaustion', 'more', 'of', 'the', 'latter', 'actually', 'considering', 'that', 'freeman', 'is', 'comatose', 'and', 'bed', 'ridden', 'for', 'most', 'of', 'the', 'movie', 'i', 'almost', 'felt', 'sorry', 'for', 'such', 'a', 'commanding', 'presence', 'and', 'talented', 'performer', 'to', 'be', 'deemed', 'less', 'important', 'to', 'the', 'film', 'than', 'an', 'elongated', 'chase', 'scene', 'with', 'an', 'wheeler', 'then', 'again', 'he', 'was', 'probably', 'given', 'a', 'significant', 'chunk', 'of', 'the', 'estimated', 'million', 'budget', 'to', 'participate', 'whereas', 'i', 'paid', 'to', 'fill', 'my', 'car', 'with', 'gas', 'and', 'then', 'another', 'for', 'the', 'eventual', 'movie', 'ticket', 'couldn', 't', 'i', 'have', 'stayed', 'home', 'and', 'napped', 'like', 'morgan', 'freeman', 'i', 'walk', 'through', 'the', 'mall', 'and', 'notice', 'faces', 'passing', 'me', 'by', 'all', 'showing', 'a', 'wide', 'range', 'of', 'emotions', 'joy', 'over', 'a', 'funny', 'conversation', 'frustration', 'over', 'missing', 'out', 'on', 'a', 'sale', 'at', 'american', 'eagle', 'even', 'anticipation', 'over', 'getting', 'the', 'chance', 'to', 'leave', 'the', 'mall', 'and', 'stop', 'carrying', 'so', 'many', 'damn', 'shopping', 'bags', 'it', 's', 'fascinating', 'to', 'think', 'we', 'as', 'humans', 'are', 'capable', 'of', 'so', 'many', 'feelings', 'to', 'express', 'and', 'it', 'later', 'made', 'me', 'wonder', 'what', 'direction', 'ric', 'roman', 'waugh', 'snitch', 'gave', 'to', 'his', 'actors', 'that', 'had', 'them', 'repress', 'all', 'possible', 'emotions', 'aside', 'from', 'toughness', 'roboticism', 'constipation', 'then', 'again', 'the', 'people', 'i', 'passed', 'at', 'the', 'mall', 'weren', 't', 'being', 'forced', 'to', 'play', 'out', 'scenarios', 'that', 'are', 'a', 'miraculous', 'combination', 'of', 'convoluted', 'and', 'mundane', 'sometimes', 'those', 'scenarios', 'are', 'so', 'boring', 'that', 'angel', 'has', 'fallen', 'would', 'rather', 'shake', 'the', 'camera', 'and', 'rapidly', 'cut', 'between', 'characters', 'than', 'focus', 'on', 'anything', 'maybe', 'it', 'was', 'out', 'of', 'shame', 'like', 'the', 'kind', 'felt', 'by', 'the', 'guy', 'walking', 'behind', 'his', 'girlfriend', 'carrying', 'four', 'victoria', 'secret', 'bags', 'p', 'm', 'and', 'i', 'felt', 'like', 'enjoying', 'food', 'at', 'the', 'local', 'red', 'robin', 'don', 't', 'worry', 'they', 're', 'not', 'a', 'sponsor', 'i', 'just', 'like', 'their', 'burgers', 'helping', 'that', 'burger', 'go', 'down', 'was', 'an', 'ice', 'cold', 'glass', 'of', 'angry', 'orchard', 'a', 'bright', 'spot', 'on', 'a', 'day', 'that', 'was', 'rather', 'uneventful', 'before', 'and', 'after', 'the', 'cider', 'it', 's', 'nice', 'when', 'the', 'tiniest', 'element', 'of', 'a', 'daily', 'routine', 'is', 'surprising', 'enough', 'to', 'be', 'memorable', 'like', 'engaging', 'in', 'conversation', 'about', 'ea', 's', 'crooked', 'business', 'strategy', 'with', 'a', 'friendly', 'bartender', 'or', 'nick', 'nolte', 'sporting', 'a', 'santa', 'claus', 'beard', 'stumbling', 'into', 'the', 'movie', 'from', 'the', 'woods', 'to', 'blow', 'up', 'soldiers', 'for', 'butler', 's', 'character', 'sure', 'he', 'looks', 'confused', 'and', 'overtired', 'running', 'through', 'the', 'trees', 'garbling', 'lines', 'but', 'hey', 'so', 'does', 'butler', 'at', 'least', 'it', 's', 'funny', 'to', 'see', 'nolte', 'hobble', 'through', 'explosions', 'and', 'rattle', 'his', 'vocal', 'chords', 'to', 'say', 'lines', 'about', 'being', 'paranoid', 'of', 'the', 'government', 'putting', 'machines', 'on', 'his', 'damn', 'lawn', 'or', 'whatever', 'hell', 'if', 'the', 'cannon', 'group', 'kept', 'charles', 'bronson', 'shooting', 'gang', 'members', 'well', 'into', 'his', 's', 'why', 'will', 'no', 'studio', 'let', 'nick', 'nolte', 'do', 'the', 'same', 'but', 'i', 'finally', 'got', 'to', 'p', 'm', 'the', 'start', 'of', 'the', 'movie', 'regardless', 'of', 'what', 'i', 'was', 'about', 'to', 'endure', 'or', 'how', 'little', 'interest', 'i', 'showed', 'in', 'the', 'movie', 'i', 'was', 'to', 'do', 'my', 'due', 'diligence', 'as', 'a', 'film', 'critic', 'and', 'give', 'the', 'movie', 'a', 'fair', 'shake', 'the', 'opening', 'studio', 'credits', 'came', 'up', 'i', 'blinked', 'and', 'then', 'the', 'movie', 'was', 'over', 'somehow', 'the', 'entire', 'minutes', 'of', 'film', 'that', 'played', 'before', 'me', 'suddenly', 'blinked', 'out', 'of', 'existence', 'in', 'my', 'memory', 'and', 'i', 'felt', 'absolutely', 'nothing', 'from', 'the', 'experience', 'but', 'i', 'just', 'recounted', 'specificities', 'from', 'the', 'movie', 'in', 'the', 'paragraphs', 'how', 'did', 'this', 'happen', 'is', 'my', 'mind', 'collapsing', 'in', 'on', 'itself', 'what', 'more', 'do', 'i', 'have', 'to', 'say', 'oh', 'right', 'angel', 'has', 'fallen', 'sucked'])

Useful Lookups (Titles by DocID, Genres by DocID, Description by DocID)

index(['DSI_Title', 'Text', 'Submission File Name', 'Student Name', 'Genre of Movie', 'Review Type (pos or neg)', 'Movie Title', 'Descriptor', 'Doc_ID'], dtype='object')

titles_by_doc_ids = {x: y for x, y in zip(corpus_df['Doc_ID'], corpus_df['Movie Title'])}
genres_by_doc_ids = {x: y for x, y in zip(corpus_df['Doc_ID'], corpus_df['Genre of Movie'])}
descriptors_by_doc_ids = {x: y for x, y in zip(corpus_df['Doc_ID'], corpus_df['Descriptor'])}

scifi_doc_ids = [int(x) for x in corpus_df['Doc_ID'] if genres_by_doc_ids[x] == 'Sci-Fi']
scifi_documents = [x for x in documents if x.doc_id in scifi_doc_ids]

non_scifi_doc_ids = {int(x) for x in corpus_df['Doc_ID'] if genres_by_doc_ids[x] != 'Sci-Fi'}
non_scifi_documents = [x for x in documents if x.doc_id in non_scifi_doc_ids]

Lookup for Specific Movie Title

print(corpus_df['Movie Title'].unique())

['Angel Has Fallen' 'Inception' 'No Time To Die' 'Taken' 'Taxi'
 'Despicable Me 3' 'Dirty Grandpa' 'Holmes and Watson' 'Legally Blonde'
 'The Lost City' 'Drag me to hell' 'Fresh' 'It Chapter Two'
 'The Toxic Avenger' 'US' 'Batman' 'Equilibrium' 'Minority Report'
 'Oblivion' 'Pitch Black']

equilibrium_doc_ids = [int(x) for x in corpus_df['Doc_ID'] if titles_by_doc_ids[x] == 'Equilibrium']
equilibrium_documents = [x for x in documents if x.doc_id in equilibrium_doc_ids]

equilibrium_documents

[Document(doc_id=10, text='A tedious rip-off sci-fi film, itching to be another Matrix (or, maybe just a bearable flick!), that brazenly steals everything from Orwell s 1984 novel and many other thinking man s films, with the same Dystopian agenda, such as Fahrenheit 451. It offers for the viewers of the more low rent sci-fi films the required martial-arts fight sequences and plenty of metallic techno gadgetry; and, it appeals to a more arty audience by its cleverly created totalitarian gothic set design of mixing actual Berlin locations with CGI effects. Nevertheless, it fails overall to arouse interest dramatically, conceptually or inventively. I ve seen this film s theme played out too often (and in a more spirited way) in recent films to find its well-intentioned virtues necessarily welcome or pleasing. It only adds unneeded celluloid to an increasingly tired genre!\n\nDirector-writer Kurt Wimmer (1995- One Man s Justice ), a screenwriter for such films as the 1998- Sphere,  the 1999- The Thomas Crown Affair  and the 2003- The Recruit,  never got this  baby  off the ground. The banal dialogue was risible (a prime example has the humanist heroine played by Emily Watson in all seriousness state:  Without love, breath is just a clock ticking ), the main action hero, Christian Bale, was miscast. His stiff actions were too self-conscious and deliberate to fill the role of an action hero. The bleak settings were uninspiring; the overall grey effect was more stunting than enlightening. What becomes most annoying is that it strings together a bunch of clich s from just about every sci-fi film and the melodrama never becomes anything more than a silly exercise in acting silly. It s a film that, quite frankly, offers little entertainment value or much of anything else (it even fails to answer most of the challenging questions it raises about state-controlled suppression).\n\nEquilibrium takes place in a futuristic world in the 21st-century post-WWIII. It resembles a fascist state where books are burned and no emotions are allowed in the belief this will prevent an uprising and another world war. John Preston (Christian Bale) is the highest ranking Grammaton ninjalike cleric in Libria, where he s a police enforcer (using a new fight technique called  Gun-Kata ) going on missions to root out all rebels who haven t taken their required daily dose of the emotion suppressing Prozium; and, he s also around to rid the world of literature, art and sentimental relics of the past. Preston catches cleric partner Partridge (Sean Bean) sneaking off with a book of poetry by WB Yeats, and turns him over to the state authorities. Partridge s expected fate is as doomed as Preston s wife, who was executed for Sense Offences (leaving him a widower with two children, one of them training in the monastery to be a cleric). But the tricky Partridge before he departs this dystopia, tells his robotic partner  I spread my dreams under your feet. \n\nBefore you can say  let s burn some more books  all of the following things happen to Preston: he s given a new uptight cleric partner, Brandt (Taye Diggs), who may be able to read his mind, he s impressed with the unrepentant sense offender he arrested Mary O Brien (Emily Watson), and he s letting some feelings into his hard interior as he takes pity on a stray puppy. This leads him to tell his big boss, Dupont (Angus MacFadyen), he wants to go after and permanently wipe out the underground movement (those that have stopped taking their drugs and are trying to save the items that have been banned). But Preston has become converted to the rebel s side by the feelings seeping through him, and he now aims to kill his society s leader Father (another way of saying Big Brother) with the help of the underground workers, and therefore hopes by contacting the rebels it will lead to a revolution.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=11, text='Equilibrium doesn\'t so much invoke a feeling of excitement as it does deja vu. Like George Orwell\'s 1984, the events take place in a bleak future where emotion is forbidden, and all those who exhibit it are arrested and exterminated. Like The Matrix, there\'s "Gun Fu," (or Gun-Kata, if you prefer) the type of gun-play ballet that displays quick-cut carnage in slow-motion, opera-like exhilaration. Like Ray Bradbury\'s Fahrenheit 451, the totalitarian government sends out specially trained agents in search of valuable works of art to be destroyed in a "baptism of fire." Bits and pieces of many other genres and classic films offer much of the rest, from German expressionism to martial arts to Blade Runner\'s claustrophobic look around the city.\n\nThe events of Equilibrium take place in a post-apocalyptic world where the human race has been reduced to living in a land called Libria. The government that is instituted is a totalitarian one, under the iron thumb of someone called the "Father," (Pertwee, Formula 51) who has outlawed any form of emotion in a way to prevent war and violence. Even artifacts that might inspire emotion, such as paintings and poetry, are forbidden to own or look at. The entire population is under sedation from a drug they must take to balance their emotions, and not doing so is also cause for removal from society.\nJohn Preston (Bale, Reign of Fire) is a Clerick, a dangerous policeman with special powers in the form of martial arts training and an ability to sense emotions. He is the best at what he does, but finds himself curious as to what emotions are, and when he meets an attractive woman who is part of the rebellion, he is conflicted where his loyalties lie.\n\nWhile all of these homages make the film interesting, unfortunately the presentation offers little new. The Matrix combined many genres into a unique new hybrid, but Equilibrium only regurgitates the lifted themes without anything new to add. The result is an uneven experience, because we like the themes presented, but they are conceived in such a simplistic way that the film has little credibility as a possible vision of what an actual future might be like. The fighting is exhilarating, yet somehow feels uneven when juxtaposed with the somber mood of the rest of the story.  Yet, without it Equilibrium might feel like a two-hour long ad for Calvin Klein\'s "Obsession," starring Dieter from SNL\'s "Sprockets."\nEquilibrium might be entertaining if you\'ve never heard of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, or any of the other films which might dip from the same thematic sci-fi pool for inspiration.  However, if you are on that level already, you\'d be better off watching any of the film versions of either book, as they are far better than Equilibrium all-around.  It\'s a film so bland, that if the nation of Librium ever were to come into existence in the future, there would be no need to destroy any copies of this film.  It\'s hard to evoke any emotions watching drama this disinteresting.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=12, text="Equilibrium is a movie in search of a plot. Writer/director Kurt Wimmer (One Tough Bastard) came up with a fascinating concept: combining martial arts with gunplay. It's pretty derivative of  and any John Woo movie, with the main difference that it incorporates guns and firing into martial arts movements. With such a good idea, he apparently felt the need to make a science fiction movie, and not thinking of anything else, came up with a highly formulaic movie reminiscent of many other films that came before. Oddly enough, Equilibrium, although nearly completely brainless, is fairly enjoyable. Wimmer may not be the best writer, but he does have a keen eye for action and fight choreography.\nThe concept behind Equilibrium is that emotions are considered evil. The public takes daily injections of Prozium, a drug that suppresses any and all emotion, and the Grammaton Clerics, a police force, patrol looking for 'sense offenders,' people who go off Prozium. The Clerics are masters at the aforementioned art, which uses movements based on statistical probabilities. They move their bodies into the positions least likely to be in the line of fire, and fire where they are most likely to hit targets. John Preston (Christian Bale) is the best Cleric there is, and finds himself accidentally going off Prozium. He revels in these new emotions he is feeling, and finds himself torn between these emotions and his duties as a Cleric.\nHis new partner Brandt (Taye Diggs) suspects that something is amiss. The rest of Equilibrium is typical science fiction/oppressed society fare (think 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 mixed together). Preston slowly realizes what is truly happening, and goes in search of a rebel movement bent on toppling the government. Emily Watson of all people even makes an appearance. Equilibrium does get better, if not more familiar, as it progresses. Part of the reason is that Wimmer needs to spend time establishing his universe. Mostly it is because as Preston rebels further, he has more opportunity to kick butt.\nLately, Bale seems to be gravitating towards a more action-oriented role. Preston is a combination of his characters. Dressed to the nines, Preston coolly fires hundreds of rounds, managing to hit everybody all the while missing every bullet aimed at him. Watching him flip and jump is so graceful it is almost like ballet. The last 20 minutes or so of the film is almost one kinetic action sequence, full of guns, swords, and an exhilarating fist fight where both opponent are also trying to fire guns at each other. There is also something fun and completely unrealistic about watching a man completely incapacitate a circle of men around him pointing swords and/or guns at him. The camera work owes much to other action films, but Wimmer does a great job filming his sequences. Well, everything about Equilibrium owes much to other films. But in this brainless romp is an element of excitement, which makes it a little bit better than most of its fellow copycats."),
 Document(doc_id=13, text="Three Movie Buffs\nPatrick - Negative\n\nEquilibrium attempts to say something profound about human nature but winds up being just another derivative dystopian future flick that combines ideas borrowed from twentieth century literary classics (think Fahrenheit 451, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Brave New World) with action fight scenes copied from The Matrix movies. An opening voice-over narration sets the scene,  In the first years of the 21st century, a third World War broke out. Those of us who survived knew mankind could never survive a fourth; that our own volatile natures could simply no longer be risked. So we have created a new arm of the law: The Grammaton Cleric, whose sole task it is to seek out and eradicate the true source of man's inhumanity to man - his ability to feel. \n \nChristian Bale stars as John Preston, one such cleric. He enforces the law against sense offenders   anyone caught having an emotion   seeking them out and destroying their hidden stashes of art   all of which is considered contraband and outlawed. To not very subtly make this point, at the beginning of the movie there is a scene where John Preston finds and destroys the Mona Lisa. All the citizens of Libria are forced to take daily dosages of an emotion suppressing drug called Prozium. Their leader is a mysterious figure known simply as Father. He is never seen in public but appears only via large screens.\n \nOne day Preston's partner is caught reading (gasp) a book of poems by William Butler Yeats. Preston is shocked to discover that his partner was not only a sense offender but that he had ties to the underground rebel movement, which turns out to be -literally- right under the ground where they are standing. Will John Preston realize the error of his ways, begin to feel, and join the rebels? Hmm, I wonder? And will he at some point find an old Victrola and a phonograph record of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, listen to it and burst into tears? Maybe.\n \nWhile this is a somewhat intriguing idea it doesn't translate easily to the screen. Think about it, you have a movie where the majority of the characters are supposed to be incapable of experiencing a genuine emotion. A complete lack of feeling is a difficult thing to act and quite dull to watch. Christian Bale does a decent job but Taye Diggs seems to be constantly smirking.\n \nEmily Watson is the female lead. She plays a sense offender named Mary who's apprehended by John Preston. Together they have the best dialogue in the movie...\n \nMary:  Why are you alive? \n \nJohn Preston:  I'm alive... I live... to safeguard the continuity of this great society. To serve\nLibria. \n \nMary:  It's circular. You exist to continue your existence. What's the point? \n \nJohn Preston:  What's the point of your existence? \n \nMary:  To feel. 'Cause you've never done it, you can never know it. But it's as vital as breath. And without it, without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock... ticking. \n \nThe Matrix style action sequences involve a new form of martial arts that combines karate with weaponry. It's called the gun katas and it enables someone to somehow miraculously dodge bullets at close range simply by learning the statistics of the different likely angles. It is never satisfactorily explained and is one of the sillier aspects of a movie that constantly walks the line between fantasy and ludicrousness.\n \nThe cinematography is nice and the sets are quite effective. Writer/director Kurt Wimmer (an American of German descent) shot many scenes at locations in Berlin, like Olympic Stadium, Deutschlandhalle, and the Brandenburg Gate in order to give the movie the right combination of  fascist  and  modern  architecture. The scenes set in the exterior of the city, where many of the rebels hide, were shot in partially dilapidated neighborhoods in East Berlin.\n \nEquilibrium has its moments but overall it's a rehash of ideas put to better use elsewhere."),
 Document(doc_id=14, text='I tried watching Equilibrium a few years ago, but could not get past the first ridiculous action scene. Armed rebels have the high ground but are pathetically inept against the police. Bale kicks in a door, slides on it like a surfboard and then pauses dramatically in a pitch black room before opening fire and killing everyone in the room without mussing his hair. Seeing that Patrick reviewed it, I gave it a second look, unfortunately.\nThe real problem I have with this film is that the very premise itself is vastly flawed. As Patrick wrote, this dystopian future is a place where the population is controlled by an oppressive government that attempts to squash human emotion with a drug called Prozium. Art, literature and anything else that may cause an emotional reaction is illegal. This makes for a dark view of the future but not a very realistic one.\nAs my brother Scott once wrote about Star Trek, good Science Fiction stories are metaphors for actual social issues. Therein lies this movies biggest problem. If a government wants to control its population, it does not do it by trying to stamp out their emotions. Feelings are too innate to the human experience to deny. If you want to control the populace, you take advantage of their emotions.\nIn the days following 9/11, the United States was in such a patriotic fervor that George W. Bush could have gotten away with any military action he wanted. Note, the Patriot Act was passed during that time. The environmental movement does not sell its theories so much on fact as it does on emotional response. I cannot count how many people have argued man made global warming to me on an emotional level. "What land will be left for our children if we allow drilling in Anwar?" "Look how sad that polar bear seems on that ice floe." All Barack Obama has to do to justify huge spending is to say it is for "Green" jobs or energy and all the believers feel better about it. My own small town gets us to vote for a tax raise by threatening to cut our police force if we don\'t. Fear is a powerful motivator.\nNo, controlling emotions is pointless and impossible. Exploiting them is where the real power comes from. You make everyone think they are making their own decision, when in fact they are simply going down the path they have been led to. It is a seemingly win win arrangement.\nDiggs does indeed smirk his way through the film, which is a contradictory way to play an emotionless person. When he arrests Preston, he clearly smiles down on him and then gets very angry with him in public. Do these guys show emotions or not? Either way, it does not matter. This film steals 1984\'s twist ending and left me wishing I had read the book again instead of watching this.\nPatrick compared the fight scenes to The Matrix and rightly so. This is made all the more similar by the familiar dark clothing worn by the leads. He wrote that the action sequences involve a new form of martial arts that combines karate with weaponry. That may have been the intention, but all I saw was lots of posing. The soundtrack should have featured Madonna\'s song "Vogue" every time Bale gets into a fight. At least then this film would have been good for a laugh.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=15, text="What happens when The Matrix and Fahrenheit 451 get drunk and careless at a party? You probably end up with something like Equilibrium. This film, pulled from distribution at the last conceivable minute and hardly seen by anyone anywhere, cannot be recommended highly enough. In the tradition of such Dark Horse hits as Boondock Saints and Office Space, Equilibrium goes out of its way to prove that just because a movie might not clean up (Or even appear) at the box office doesn t mean it won t surprise people with how well it sells once the DVD s hit the shelves.\nEquilibrium did not come out in a theater near me. I did not hear anything about it for months. Then, all of a sudden, the internet exploded with reviews; reviews which either franticly praised, or viciously condemned the film. This was my cue to go out and track a copy down. I decided to rent it and watch it with my girlfriend. I made one mistake; I watched it right after I saw The Matrix: Reloaded for the first time. I was not expecting too much from the film, I just wanted to be entertained for a few hours. Honestly I was going to get it out of the way so I could say  So that s what all the fuss was about  (Because I say things like that all the time).\nI was surprised! I was shocked! I forgot about the $13 late fee my parents racked up on our Blockbuster account and left for me to pay!  I immediately made it my business to find a copy of my own. I very nearly paid the $30 they tried to charge me at both Suncoast and Barnes & Noble. That is a testament to this movies  greatness. Normally I would balk at paying $30, even for two movies, but Equilibrium was too good for me not to be able to watch it whenever I wanted. I lucked out and snagged a used copy for 15 bucks. Let s be honest; 30 dollars is just too damn much for a DVD with virtually no special features.\nBut enough about my quest to own the film, I need to tell you about watching it. I mentioned that I had expected little from this movie. I also said I was pleasantly surprised. Pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I was as  pleasantly surprised  as someone who wins $50,000 and a boat because his neighbor filled out a raffle ticket in his name and forgot to tell him.\nThe best way to do it (if you still have a chance (most people won t)) is to do things in this precise order;\n1) See The Matrix for the first time\n2) See Equilibrium for the first time\n3) See The Matrix: Reloaded for the first time\nNow, many people, having seen the second Matrix movie don t have this luxury. If you have been in a coma or in prison for the past 6 months, you can still see Equilibrium before the brilliant sequel to The Matrix. Equilibrium will change your life the way the  Matrix  movies did. That assumes you liked those movies. If not, rent Final Destination 2. You d be much better off watching a movie on Carson Daly s recommendation.\nI realize that I have been anything but subtle in my comparing Equilibrium and The Matrix. This is deliberate. If Ray Bradbury had tried to copy The Matrix he would have written something very similar to Equilibrium. They both contain all the essential elements demanded by their target audience (horny teenage males). These essential elements include guns, 'splosions and boobies. I don t make the rules; I just shell out $10 for X2 so I can see Famke Janssen in a form-fitting body suit.\nChristian Bale plays John Preston, a special unit of law enforcement referred to as a  Gramaton Cleric . It is the duty of the Clerics to dispose of  Sense offenders ; anyone who has stopped taking their special, feeling-suppressing medication called  Prozium . Every citizen of  Libria  is required to take their Prozium on a regular interval to keep them from feeling anything because those in power believe that in this way they can stamp out war and hate crime forever.\n The job of the Gramaton Cleric is simple: find and detain sense offenders, kill sense offenders who resist arrest, and destroy anything that has been declared  EC-10  and might trigger emotion. EC apparently stands for  Emotional Content . Everything is EC-10 for the most part.  In an early scene, Preston stumbles upon a cache of paintings, including the Mona Lisa. In a scene heavily reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451, he gives the command  Burn it.  The most famous painting in all the world and countless others are evaporated by industrial flame throwers as Preston turns his back and walks away.\nI didn t love this movie so much because of the plot. I love the work of Ray Bradbury and other similar science fiction writers, but the plot is not by far the best part of this film. The action scenes steal the thunder from the plot-heavy dialogue scenes. The clerics are taught  Gun Kata s , wherein they memorize a series of predetermined movements wielding their guns much like a student of karate might wield sai s. The back story is that thousands of gun battles were studied, and the probabilities of the locations of antagonists and vectors of probable return fire were determined. In plain English, they figured out where you should stand if you don t want to get shot. A series of predetermined arm movements point the guns at the probable locations of antagonists; all that is left for the cleric to do is pull the trigger. The body moves very little, and the head does not move at all; the movement is all in the arms. These techniques are so effective that Preston dispatches about 10 armed suspects in a pitch-black room and receives no return fire.\nEach action scene showcases a different aspect of the training a cleric receives; there are sword fights, gun fights, even a gun/sword fight. The guns are used almost as daggers; parrying an opponents  gun with your own so you avoid taking a bullet. Guns are taken away and used against their owners and even as bludgeons. Nearly every conceivable use of a gun is explored in the unique and original action scenes which pepper this film. Occasionally a gun is used to shoot someone as well. The action does not get boring because each scene is different and has its own unique quirks.\nHave we learned nothing from The Matrix? I think everyone everywhere would agree; stuff looks cooler when you slow it way down. This technique was not used nearly enough in Equilibrium. Very few times was the action slowed down so that the viewer might catch everything, and have time to say to his friends  Did you SEE that?  Most of the time in this film, the answer would be  No.  The rewind button comes in handy while watching Equilibrium. I rewound quite a few times to clarify what had happened in the action scenes. Plus, a lot of the things that happen are worth seeing again (Or maybe it is just me; I watched the 4 seconds of Goodfellas where Joe Pesci is killed about 100 times before someone took the remote control away from me. Caffeine was involved.)  It would have definitely added to the film if more of the breath-taking action sequences had been slowed down so that they could be savored. The scenes were not as hard to follow as those in say, Daredevil (Whose genius idea was it to illuminate every fight scene in that movie with a strobe light?), but they could definitely have benefited from some slow-motion photography.\nThe acting in the film was phenomenal. First of all, Sean Bean can do absolutely no wrong by me. I have seen him in a handful of movies (Goldeneye, Ronin, Lord of the Rings, and Equilibrium) and I have learned two things about this actor.\n1) His character will probably not be in the second half of the movie\n2) He will turn in an excellent performance\nHe is probably one of the most underrated actors in recent memory. He gets my vote for the  Phillip Seymour Hoffman award for actors who will most likely never get the lead role in a movie anywhere other than Sundance.  Yet he always entertains, and was an excellent choice to play Errol Partridge in Equilibrium. It was either him or Phillip Seymour Hoffman.\nThen you have Christian Bale. What can I say about him without sounding like a stalker? I d better leave it at that. Christian is a very consistent actor, and he keeps a straight face in moments in the film where he is required to and most others would not have been able to. Lots of critics really bashed his performance in this movie, but they said the same thing about Ron Livingston in Office Space and his career took off after that film. I guess the best thing we can say about Christian Bale in this film is that he does about what you would expect from Christian Bale. He is the quiet guy who starts yelling at the end of his movies. Rent Swing Kids.\nThe rest of the cast does a great job as well. If someone had turned in a sub-par performance, I would let you know. No one did. Emily Watson has a kind of eerie charm that lends her a sort of strange attractiveness beyond physical beauty. Taye Diggs is .American. Thank God they put at least one American in this movie. Angus MacFayden is . angry. But he usually is. Good old passive/aggressive Angus.\nThis movie is not, however, without shortcomings. It is not going to be a candidate for a golden globe or an academy award. But damn, it s entertaining! I loved it, so who cares if the critics didn t? Gun fights and a decent plot. The plot is not an excuse for the violence, nor is it a means of ferrying the character from one fight scene to the next. It is the biggest part of the film, and draws elements from many of the great science fiction novels of the 20th century. There are some plot holes. I can t list them without giving major plot events or the outcome of the film away. If you find some, remind yourself that it is just a movie. There aren t continuity errors by any means. All in all, it was a superb film, and I have thoroughly enjoyed multiple screenings in a week s period. It is a movie one can watch again and again. Unless you hate it, in which case you can return it to the video store and drink strong coffee to wash the taste out of your mouth. It isn t for everyone, but one the other hand, it isn t another Zombie vs. Ninja, and that has to count for something.\nWhat happens when The Matrix and Fahrenheit 451 get drunk and careless at a party? You probably end up with something like Equilibrium. This film, pulled from distribution at the last conceivable minute and hardly seen by anyone anywhere, cannot be recommended highly enough. In the tradition of such Dark Horse hits as Boondock Saints and Office Space, Equilibrium goes out of its way to prove that just because a movie might not clean up (Or even appear) at the box office doesn t mean it won t surprise people with how well it sells once the DVD s hit the shelves.\nEquilibrium did not come out in a theater near me. I did not hear anything about it for months. Then, all of a sudden, the internet exploded with reviews; reviews which either franticly praised, or viciously condemned the film. This was my cue to go out and track a copy down. I decided to rent it and watch it with my girlfriend. I made one mistake; I watched it right after I saw The Matrix: Reloaded for the first time. I was not expecting too much from the film, I just wanted to be entertained for a few hours. Honestly I was going to get it out of the way so I could say  So that s what all the fuss was about  (Because I say things like that all the time).\nI was surprised! I was shocked! I forgot about the $13 late fee my parents racked up on our Blockbuster account and left for me to pay!  I immediately made it my business to find a copy of my own. I very nearly paid the $30 they tried to charge me at both Suncoast and Barnes & Noble. That is a testament to this movies  greatness. Normally I would balk at paying $30, even for two movies, but Equilibrium was too good for me not to be able to watch it whenever I wanted. I lucked out and snagged a used copy for 15 bucks. Let s be honest; 30 dollars is just too damn much for a DVD with virtually no special features.\nBut enough about my quest to own the film, I need to tell you about watching it. I mentioned that I had expected little from this movie. I also said I was pleasantly surprised. Pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I was as  pleasantly surprised  as someone who wins $50,000 and a boat because his neighbor filled out a raffle ticket in his name and forgot to tell him.\nThe best way to do it (if you still have a chance (most people won t)) is to do things in this precise order;\n1) See The Matrix for the first time\n2) See Equilibrium for the first time\n3) See The Matrix: Reloaded for the first time\nNow, many people, having seen the second Matrix movie don t have this luxury. If you have been in a coma or in prison for the past 6 months, you can still see Equilibrium before the brilliant sequel to The Matrix. Equilibrium will change your life the way the  Matrix  movies did. That assumes you liked those movies. If not, rent Final Destination 2. You d be much better off watching a movie on Carson Daly s recommendation.\nI realize that I have been anything but subtle in my comparing Equilibrium and The Matrix. This is deliberate. If Ray Bradbury had tried to copy The Matrix he would have written something very similar to Equilibrium. They both contain all the essential elements demanded by their target audience (horny teenage males). These essential elements include guns, 'splosions and boobies. I don t make the rules; I just shell out $10 for X2 so I can see Famke Janssen in a form-fitting body suit.\nChristian Bale plays John Preston, a special unit of law enforcement referred to as a  Gramaton Cleric . It is the duty of the Clerics to dispose of  Sense offenders ; anyone who has stopped taking their special, feeling-suppressing medication called  Prozium . Every citizen of  Libria  is required to take their Prozium on a regular interval to keep them from feeling anything because those in power believe that in this way they can stamp out war and hate crime forever.\n The job of the Gramaton Cleric is simple: find and detain sense offenders, kill sense offenders who resist arrest, and destroy anything that has been declared  EC-10  and might trigger emotion. EC apparently stands for  Emotional Content . Everything is EC-10 for the most part.  In an early scene, Preston stumbles upon a cache of paintings, including the Mona Lisa. In a scene heavily reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451, he gives the command  Burn it.  The most famous painting in all the world and countless others are evaporated by industrial flame throwers as Preston turns his back and walks away.\nI didn t love this movie so much because of the plot. I love the work of Ray Bradbury and other similar science fiction writers, but the plot is not by far the best part of this film. The action scenes steal the thunder from the plot-heavy dialogue scenes. The clerics are taught  Gun Kata s , wherein they memorize a series of predetermined movements wielding their guns much like a student of karate might wield sai s. The back story is that thousands of gun battles were studied, and the probabilities of the locations of antagonists and vectors of probable return fire were determined. In plain English, they figured out where you should stand if you don t want to get shot. A series of predetermined arm movements point the guns at the probable locations of antagonists; all that is left for the cleric to do is pull the trigger. The body moves very little, and the head does not move at all; the movement is all in the arms. These techniques are so effective that Preston dispatches about 10 armed suspects in a pitch-black room and receives no return fire.\nEach action scene showcases a different aspect of the training a cleric receives; there are sword fights, gun fights, even a gun/sword fight. The guns are used almost as daggers; parrying an opponents  gun with your own so you avoid taking a bullet. Guns are taken away and used against their owners and even as bludgeons. Nearly every conceivable use of a gun is explored in the unique and original action scenes which pepper this film. Occasionally a gun is used to shoot someone as well. The action does not get boring because each scene is different and has its own unique quirks.\nHave we learned nothing from The Matrix? I think everyone everywhere would agree; stuff looks cooler when you slow it way down. This technique was not used nearly enough in Equilibrium. Very few times was the action slowed down so that the viewer might catch everything, and have time to say to his friends  Did you SEE that?  Most of the time in this film, the answer would be  No.  The rewind button comes in handy while watching Equilibrium. I rewound quite a few times to clarify what had happened in the action scenes. Plus, a lot of the things that happen are worth seeing again (Or maybe it is just me; I watched the 4 seconds of Goodfellas where Joe Pesci is killed about 100 times before someone took the remote control away from me. Caffeine was involved.)  It would have definitely added to the film if more of the breath-taking action sequences had been slowed down so that they could be savored. The scenes were not as hard to follow as those in say, Daredevil (Whose genius idea was it to illuminate every fight scene in that movie with a strobe light?), but they could definitely have benefited from some slow-motion photography.\nThe acting in the film was phenomenal. First of all, Sean Bean can do absolutely no wrong by me. I have seen him in a handful of movies (Goldeneye, Ronin, Lord of the Rings, and Equilibrium) and I have learned two things about this actor.\n1) His character will probably not be in the second half of the movie\n2) He will turn in an excellent performance\nHe is probably one of the most underrated actors in recent memory. He gets my vote for the  Phillip Seymour Hoffman award for actors who will most likely never get the lead role in a movie anywhere other than Sundance.  Yet he always entertains, and was an excellent choice to play Errol Partridge in Equilibrium. It was either him or Phillip Seymour Hoffman.\nThen you have Christian Bale. What can I say about him without sounding like a stalker? I d better leave it at that. Christian is a very consistent actor, and he keeps a straight face in moments in the film where he is required to and most others would not have been able to. Lots of critics really bashed his performance in this movie, but they said the same thing about Ron Livingston in Office Space and his career took off after that film. I guess the best thing we can say about Christian Bale in this film is that he does about what you would expect from Christian Bale. He is the quiet guy who starts yelling at the end of his movies. Rent Swing Kids.\nThe rest of the cast does a great job as well. If someone had turned in a sub-par performance, I would let you know. No one did. Emily Watson has a kind of eerie charm that lends her a sort of strange attractiveness beyond physical beauty. Taye Diggs is .American. Thank God they put at least one American in this movie. Angus MacFayden is . angry. But he usually is. Good old passive/aggressive Angus.\nThis movie is not, however, without shortcomings. It is not going to be a candidate for a golden globe or an academy award. But damn, it s entertaining! I loved it, so who cares if the critics didn t? Gun fights and a decent plot. The plot is not an excuse for the violence, nor is it a means of ferrying the character from one fight scene to the next. It is the biggest part of the film, and draws elements from many of the great science fiction novels of the 20th century. There are some plot holes. I can t list them without giving major plot events or the outcome of the film away. If you find some, remind yourself that it is just a movie. There aren t continuity errors by any means. All in all, it was a superb film, and I have thoroughly enjoyed multiple screenings in a week s period. It is a movie one can watch again and again. Unless you hate it, in which case you can return it to the video store and drink strong coffee to wash the taste out of your mouth. It isn t for everyone, but one the other hand, it isn t another Zombie vs. Ninja, and that has to count for something.\n"),
 Document(doc_id=16, text='You tread on my dreams.\n\nBenjamin Franklin once said, "Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither." Such is the world of Equilibrium. Writer/Director Kurt Wimmer\'s (Ultraviolet) physical vision of a future world where the essence of humanity has been sacrificed for the sake of the physical welfare of humanity is a little stale -- and necessarily so -- but in a film like this, it\'s the theme rather than the look that counts. Equilibrium is a modern masterpiece that examines the folly of overzealous governmental/tyrannical control over a population, in this case taken to the extreme: removing the very essence of mankind for the sake of saving mankind in the physical sense, but at the price of his emotional and spiritual welfare. Indeed, in the world of Equilibrium it\'s the very things that make men free -- individuality, choice, association, emotion, ownership, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- that have been outlawed for the "betterment" of man, and while this new, sterile, inconsequential way of life may lead to physical safety, it\'s far more damaging to man than bullets or bombs. This is a no-nonsense look at the dangers of forsaking liberty for security as told in the shape of an Action/Science Fiction film. Equilibrium pulls no punches and leaves its message front-and-center in every frame, though never to the detriment of the whole.\n\nIn the not-too-distant future, war has ravaged the planet at the price of countless lives. Mankind cannot survive a fourth World War. To avoid further conflict, a totalitarian regime has risen to power and outlawed any and all things -- both physical objects and beliefs alike -- that could influence human emotion, potentially lead to disagreement, and shatter the forced state of harmony that exists following the war. Not only is art, music, poetry, and even fancy mirror borders outlawed, but man is controlled through the injection of a suppressive drug meant to ensure submission to the new way of life. The government routinely raids known strongholds of resistance where emotions remain; the drugs unused; and art, poetry, and music are present and provide emotional stimuli. Armed soldiers patrol the streets, but highly-skilled killers known as "Clerics" work hand-in-hand with the police force to deter and defeat the enemy of emotion and the rebels who harbor it. Amongst the Clerics is John Preston (Christian Bale, Terminator Salvation), an elite killing machine who is hailed as the best of the best amongst his peers and an unflappable protector of the regime\'s doctrine. He even kills his partner (Sean Bean, Flightplan) for perusing a confiscated poetry book. When Preston accidentally misses his morning dose of the emotion-stifling drug, he begins to experience emotions -- concern, regret, despair, uncertainty -- that threaten his job and his life. His new partner Brandt (Taye Diggs, Go) notices the changes and suspects Preston of harboring emotions. When Preston finally awakens to a moment of catharsis, he goes on the offensive with the purpose of eliminating the totalitarian regime that has in essence destroyed mankind for the sake of saving it.\n\nEquilibrium may be a damning look at forcible control and the dangers of sacrificing freedom for safety, but it exists in the superficial guise of an Action movie. Certainly the themes are plainly obvious but the picture is structurally a basic run-and-gun/martial arts hybrid sort of affair that demonstrates great artistic proficiency in showcasing the various skills of the "Clerics" who shoot like RoboCop and sword fight like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It\'s hard to fathom such skill in an emotionless world, how people of such natural gifts could be selected for the job when human emotions such as pride are outlawed and flaunting demonstrations of athletic skill would be, at best, frowned upon. There are certainly other liberties taken in the film, such as the remaining institution of marriage which would seem to have no bearing in a world governed through the absence of emotion, for what is marriage but an open proclamation of the greatest emotion of them all? Perhaps it\'s a means through which those in charge can guarantee themselves future "subjects" over whom to rule, but that would suggest some sense of personal satisfaction -- hubris, maybe -- at the holding of personal power and authority over others. Certainly the powers-that-be would not themselves eschew the lifestyle they force upon their subjects...would they? Regardless of a few plot holes, Equilibrium works because of its adherence to principals and a willingness to tell a daring, damning story that often feels all-too-real or, at the very least, all-too-plausibly-real in a real world where strife is common and ever-shrinking liberties are shrugged off as the necessary price to pay for safety and "happiness" by those with the loudest voice and in the highest positions of power and influence.\n\nNo matter its relative merits as an Action film or the negatives of a few question marks; the pulse of Equilibrium beats most strongly in the story. It\'s certainly not allegorical -- there are no allusions here, everything is front-and-center -- but it is instead made obvious so as to more succinctly make its point. That\'s not to the film\'s detriment; while allegory is often used to strong, tone-establishing, purpose-revealing commentary, Equilibrium\'s matter-of-fact tone resonates just as strongly and achieves the same kind of success even if the point isn\'t made in a more shadowy, undercover sense that\'s defined many of the great cautionary tales of yore. The film makes a point to emphasize the crime of individuality and the norm of conformity, the perceived dangers of emotion, and the perceived stability of the lack thereof. Though the special effects don\'t hold up well and the sets are (deliberately) stale and sterile, Equilibrium masterfully creates a mood which necessarily supersedes all else. The film\'s picture of an obviously totalitarian regime controlling a de facto slave race (to what end is never exactly revealed, though it\'s certainly implied) that has willingly sacrificed its very essence for the guarantee of security is vividly, if not sometimes too obviously, drawn, but then again the film focuses on a society built on extremes, which implies, if not demands, simplicity and the obvious above all else. The message would certainly be too heavy-handed -- though no less relevant -- without its dazzling action pieces offsetting the somber tone, but Equilibrium absolutely thrives as an achievement of film that engenders critical thinking and that speaks loudly and clearly on the dangers of the slippery slope that is the sacrifice of freedom for some idealistic but foolhardy goal that simply cannot be achieved at the business end of a gun, through the swallowing of a pill, and by the removal of any and all emotion and individuality. The human spirit is too strong.\n\nEquilibrium\'s 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer is one of those that looks good at-a-glance, but a more critical analysis reveals plenty of problems. First and foremost, the image is presented in an "HDTV full frame" 1.78:1 aspect ratio rather than its wider 2.35:1-or-thereabouts theatrical presentation. While the film is said to have been shot in Super35, the blow-up from its theatrical exhibition aspect ratio, presumably for the sake of eliminating "black bars" from the equation, is unacceptable, even if there\'s little information actually lost along the way. That said, Equilibrium doesn\'t look bad in places. Fine detail can be quite good; skin textures are often quite revealing, while clothing and even close-ups of firearms reveal crisp, accurate details. Colors are limited to cold, steely, lifeless shades for the most part; Equilibrium is by design cold and gray, but what few splashes of color exist beyond white and gray and black appear neutral and accurate. Black levels are decent, never looking washed out and exhibiting only slight, if any, crush. Flesh tones are often a bit pale, which seems in-line with the film\'s intended look. So far, so good, but Equilibrium features an over-sharpened appearance and is absolutely slathered in edge enhancement, some of the heaviest that one is ever likely to see on a Blu-ray disc. Additionally, it appears that at least some noise reduction has been applied, but only sporadically so; grain is present in some scenes, wiped away in others. Banding and blocking are of only minor concern. Remove the excess edge enhancement and display the film in its proper aspect ratio and this would be a quality transfer, but alas, it just wasn\'t meant to be this go-round.\n\nUnfortunately, Equilibrium hasn\'t received the sonic treatment the film not only deserves, but demands. The included DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack just doesn\'t cut it. Though it tries and struggles and does all it can, the sonic presentation is decidedly lacking. The front-heavy feel does a disservice to the film\'s many action scenes, where it sounds like half the soundstage has simply been chopped off. Action effects are cramped, and with the back channels effectively dead, the confined sensation puts forth a sour note. Where there should be fuller, more lively action elements, there\'s nothing. Sure, gunfire zips across the front half of the soundstage with a good deal of energy and even creates a few front-end directional effects, but that it just seems to stop dead in its tracks is jarring to say the least. This track does squeeze out a decent low end, but clarity is a real problem area in most every area save dialogue. Dialogue occasionally seems to bleed over to the side for no apparent reason, but such instances are the exception rather than the rule, the spoken word generally firmly entrenched in the center speaker and playing with suitable stability and clarity. Of all of the recent wave of 2.0 rather than 5.1 soundtracks, this might be the most adversely-effected film. A lossy 5.1 mix would have been preferable to a two-channel lossless offering in this instance, never mind a full-fledged 5.1 lossless soundtrack.\n\nEquilibrium\'s Blu-ray release actually contains one extra, a featurette entitled Finding \'Equlibrium\' (480p, 4:26). It\'s a disappointingly brief and by-the-numbers rapid-fire making-of piece that features cast and crew talking up the movie, intercut with clips form the film and behind-the-scenes footage.\n\nEquilibrium rings true, or rings with a potential to be true, with every viewing. In it, people are sheep and the human condition has all but been eradicated under the false premise of safety and security. Of course, it\'s all about the price one must pay for such things, and in Equilibrium, that\'s the soul, at least figuratively speaking. This is an engaging and wonderfully thought-provoking picture that explores the value of human life in the physical sense versus the spiritual and emotional senses. There\'s so much talk about "safety" and "security" both in the film and in real life that one must decide what the true price of liberty must be and on what is placed a higher value: the body or the soul. Is life truly worth living - - and may it even be called living -- if man forcibly devolves into mindless, drug-controlled robots who serve no purpose either in their own lives or for the greater good of society? Equilibrium posits such questions while in the guise of an Action picture, but make no mistake, this is much more than that. Unfortunately, Echo Bridge\'s Blu-ray release of this important and cult-favorite film features a subpar technical presentation and only one extra. Viewers must choose how much they will sacrifice to own a neutered copy of the film. Quite the parallel to the picture\'s themes, no? Oh the irony.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=17, text='Bale Bales on the Future\nOn one hand "Equilibrium" bores me; I\'m bored of movies which feature a dystopian future where a government is making everyone\'s life a misery. But then on the other hand this future world where feeling is repressed by daily drugs is quite clever and features action which can only be described as Matrix-esque in style which makes it surprisingly entertaining. It even manages to draw you in to the story of Feeling Officer John Preston and you wonder what will happen in the end, as in will he save certain people, be discovered and so on serving up twists which don\'t let you down. As such "Equilibrium" does a reasonable job of entertaining with its idea of a future where feelings are outlawed and an elite force destroy those who chose to have feelings and own such contraband items which cause feelings.\nFollowing a Third World War it is decided that the emotions are the cause of war and in order to eliminate war the freedom to feel must be suppressed with those renegades who chose not to comply and have contraband goods such as books and records being exterminated. Grammaton Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale - Captain Corelli\'s Mandolin) is one of the top enforcement officers whose job it is to destroy all contraband and those who refuse to take a daily injection to suppress their emotions. But when he accidentally misses a dose he finds himself discovering a new and confusing world where he has emotions but somehow has to hide this fact from those who would kill him if they knew.\n\nSo as already mentioned "Equilibrium" is another one of those movies which paint a grim picture of the future, a future where following a third world war the freedom to have feelings is outlawed as those who rule decide feelings are behind mankinds self destruction. Now I\'m just a little bored of these movies which paint a dystopian future for the simple reason that they always seem to be a government who have messed up society by their dictatorial rule. Yes the symbolism in "Equilibrium" which obvious mirrors that of Hitler and the Nazi\'s is semi clever but on one level it is just another futuristic movie where we have misery thanks to the government and a bunch of renegades fighting oppression.\nBut get beyond this and there is some intelligence to "Equilibrium" especially that the oppression comes from suppressing feelings as it is seen as the cause of conflict and mankind\'s destruction. And as we watch John Preston initially forget to take his daily drug and experience emotion for the first time it does become interesting. It delivers some interesting scenarios where he tries to keep up the masquerade of being emotionless as he goes about his job yet battles to hide the feelings which are so alien to him. You just have to smile when it is the discovery of a dog which almost blows his cover, as he can\'t bear to see it exterminated.\nWhat also helps "Equilibrium" is that it twists and turns and whilst it sets up the cliche element of John being the saviour of the renegades as he is the only one who can stop the Father\'s dictatorial rule it also throws up some surprises. It\'s because of these surprises, these twists which end up lifting "Equilibrium" into becoming something genuinely exciting and more that just will he or won\'t he help the renegades regain control.\nNow in lesser hands "Equilibrium" could have been quite dull but writer and director Kurt Wimmer brings a touch of the "Matrix" to it. Not in the sense that not is all that it seems but when it comes to the action it has that same snappy, punchy feel to it. Scenes which see John take down both renegades and officers with some fancy moves and a lot of gun action may feel a bit like an imitation but they are exciting. And Wimmer embellishes the action nicely, advancing the style which we witnessed in "The Matrix" so it adds something new to it, something as simple as the way John\'s guns reload during battle. But it is not all about the action and Wimmer uses the snappy action to punctuate the drama of the story rather than it just being what bad ass move John will do next.\nThat "Matrix" styling also comes to the actual look of the future and in particular the slick hair and long coat of Christian Bale as John Preston. But what is interesting is the harshness of this look softens in tune with when he starts to feel emotions again. Aside from this Christian Bale does a solid job of making John interesting, allowing us to understand the confusion and fear he feels when for the first time he feels emotion. It\'s not the deepest of characters but it works especially when it comes to the action scenes. And to be honest whilst "Equilibrium" also features Sean Bean, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs and Angus MacFadyen it is Bale who really drives this movie forwards, with maybe the exception of young Matthew Harbour who is terrific and quite scary as John\'s emotionless son.\nWhat this all boils down to is that as Dystopian movies go "Equilibrium" isn\'t that bad. Behind the obviousness of a miserable future where renegades try to over throw a dictatorial government there is some cleverness and whilst it is obvious that John Preston will be some form of saviour characters there are plenty of twists before we even get close to that outcome. It is very Matrix-esque in style and the action is one of the highlights of the movie but it does have the solid storyline to back it up and stop it just from becoming another futuristic action movie.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=18, text='A Constantly Racing Mind\nRobert Barbere\n\nIn the first years of the 21st century, a third World War broke out. Those of us who survived knew mankind could never survive a fourth; that our own volatile natures could simply no longer be risked. So we have created a new arm of the law: The Grammaton Cleric, whose sole task it is to seek out and eradicate the true source of man\'s inhumanity to man - his ability to feel.\n\nwhen it comes to rebellion in a dystopian society, there has to be giant screens with the dictator\'s face pontificating pablum for the proletariat masses. That is the world of "Equilibrium" and the land of Libria. After a third world war, the survivors of Librium decided that it is the unchecked emotions that humans fall prey to that are the root cause of violence and war. Taking a hint form the Stoics of Ancient Greece, the Librians have outlawed emotions declaring it Sense Crime. Unlike the Vulcans of the "Star Trek" universe who replaced emotions with logic, the people of Libria medicate themselves daily with a drug called Prozium, an emotion stabilizer that keeps the population in check. In this seemingly sterilized world of modern, tall, fascist looking buildings, armed guards stand on the sidelines in their black visor helmets constantly vigilant for any form of Sense Crime. Even the young children participate in the witch-hunt. In charge of much of this are the Grammaton Clerics, a quasi-religious - arm of the law who lead the charge against emotion. Writer and director Kurt Wimmer ("The Thomas Crown Affair") provides the audience with a social message buried in the spectacular Gun Kata fights. Christian Bales stars as a conflicted cleric who like all protagonists in any dystopian rebellion must overcome his own feelings or in this case lack of them to bring down The System. Due to the amount of violence, the MPAA rates "Equilibrium" R and the film runs about an hour and forty-seven minutes.\nThe great nepenthe. Opiate of our masses. Glue of our great society. Salve and salvation, it has delivered us from pathos, from sorrow, the deepest chasms of melancholy and hate. With it, we anesthetize grief, annihilate jealousy, obliterate rage. Those sister impulses towards joy, love, and elation are anesthetized in stride, we accept as fair sacrifice. For we embrace Prozium in its unifying fullness and all that it has done to make us great. ~ Father\n\nAlthough "Equilibrium" is derivative in many ways, drawing from the works of Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury, writer and director Kurt Wimmer packages the concepts of freedom of thought nicely into a film that doesn\'t dwell too deeply in the philosophy, but utilizes action elements that will appeal to the adrenaline or the video game junkies. Christian Bale is Cleric John Preston. Dressed in black with a high collar, he and his partner Errol Partridge (Sean Bean - "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring") enter a building outside the city in the Nether that was identified as a resistance stronghold for The Underground. Along with squads of police, some in riot gear, they come to a room where the offenders plan to make their last stand. In "Matrix" fashion, with monastic vocalizing in the background, Preston runs toward the door, knocking it down, in the dark, he begins a gunfight that seems impossible to win. The strobe like glimpses of gunfire as Preston performs a ballet in the dark with twin fully automatic Beretta 92FS. When the lights go on, all are dead except for Preston. His partner and the rest of the squad enter and after a brief inspection, Preston orders that the police hack through the floorboards. Underneath are rare classical paintings including Leonardo DaVinci\'s "Mona Lisa." Like the fireman in "Fahrenheit 451," Preston calmly orders all the pictures burned. \nHad I the heavens\' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet:\nBut I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet;\nTread softly, because you tread on my dreams. ~ William Butler Yeats\n\nPreston\'s career so far is stunning, his intuition of what people are thinking, and his faith in the Tetragrammaton Council seems unshakeable, until today. Returning to the city with his partner, both sitting in the backseat, Preston notices a poetry book in Partridges coat pocket. When Preston asks him about it, Partridge s answer raises a red flag in Preston\'s mind. In totalitarian societies that we, as viewers, have come to know, suspicion is a virtue. The government encourages children to denounce their parents and friends to turn on friends. In a supposedly emotionless society, this betrayal is just par for the course. In Orwell\'s "1984," he surrounds us of images of Big Brother, but here in Libria, Father played by Sean Pertwee ("Event Horizon," "Dog Soldiers") doesn\'t have much of a role in this film, but his voice and his image is everywhere dictating the benefits of Prozium to a blank staring society. Similar to "1984," a poem voices the central theme of the film. Preston, led by his suspicions, finds Partridge in a crumbling cathedral the Nethers, sitting and reading William Butler Yeats\' "He wishes for the cloths of heaven." Preston shoots Partridge in the head. Here, the poem instills the theme of "Equilibrium" in both Preston\'s mind and the viewers. Wimmer doesn\'t want to make a political statement, but instead the message is more spiritual or philosophical that strikes out against unity and conformity.\n\nAfter Preston accidentally loses, one of his doses of Prozium, his 12-year-old son, with a deadpan look and monotone voice commands his father to, "Log the loss, and get a refill." The boy is cold and menacing, as he asks his father about seeing a boy cry, "should I report him?" Preston who hasn\'t refilled his dose and his emotions are beginning to kick in, almost faltering, "yes, of course you should.  We all know emotions are a powerful thing, and it is a measure of a man who can control his emotions. Preston\'s new partner, Brandt (Taye Diggs - "Go"), is a Cleric whose ambition is set for the top, and being at the top means deposing Preston. During a raid within Libria, Preston and Brandt come across another member of the Underground, a Mary O\'Brien (Emily Watson - "Red Dragon"). Arrested for Sense Crime, they take Mary away. After having a wall torn away, Preston finds objects that come from a time before the war, a time when people could still feel, still have emotion. As emotions begin to take control, Preston is caught rearranging his desk, making it different from the others. He is almost caught by Brandt. While cleaning up on another raid, where Preston was almost caught letting some offenders go, he finds himself in a room filled with more artifacts. The room, like V\'s room from "V is for Vendetta," the room is filled with art, literature and music. Preston accidently starts up an old Victrola with Beethoven\'s  Ninth Symphony, First Movement.  Preston is wracked with emotion; memories of his wife, incinerated for Sense Crime come flooding back. The assumption here is that marriage and breeding are purely biological acts and have no emotional encumbrances. \n\nThrough analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, the Cleric has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically predictable element. The gun kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increase to lethal proficiency makes the master of the gun katas an adversary not to be taken lightly.   Vice Councilor Dupont\n\nWith music, art, and literature outlawed, the council has divested society of most of its attachments leaving only rote adherence to the Tetragrammaton Council. Here, the Tetragram is a quasi-religious symbol representing the theonym for the four letters that represent the name of God in Hebrew. The T symbol is all present in Libria, representing the lower half of the cross, giving a subconscious under tone of religion throughout the film. The cleric is part priest and part warrior. Like the Shaolin priest who practices the martial art of Kung Fu (Wushu), the Clerics are masters in Gun Fu or better known in Libria as the Gun-Kata, A set of forms that optimize the number of victims during a gun battle. Preston is the master, but Brandt is close behind. Without Prozium, Preston questions his superiors, and while he finds their answers lacking, they find him losing faith in their cause. The battle between Brandt and Preston becomes one of cat and mouse as Preston attempts to contact the underground. Tricks within tricks, feints within feints, the viewer is left guessing if the resistance is real or not. Garth (William Fichtner - "The Perfect Storm"), a friend of Partridge, leads The Underground as they blow up Prozium plants within the city. \n\nThe ending of the film is spectacular in the sense of the thought that Wimmer put into the script and Bale\'s effort in both the acting department as well as in the action scenes. Much of the ending is "Matrix" like but better in ways that make the film worth watching. The cast is primarily British, including Bale, and includes Americans Taye Diggs and William Fichtner who all do an excellent job in building their characters and the world around them. Vice Councilor Dupont (Angus Macfadyen    Braveheart ) shares the title of antagonist with Brandt when it comes holding the people of Libria down in their controlled state. The film\'s composer, Klaus Badelt, brings a solid depth to the film, while Dion Beebe\'s cinematography depicts more of an alternative world rather than something futuristic or apocalyptic. Wimmer\'s choice to film in Berlin gives Libria a solid totalitarian look. Overall, "Equilibrium" succeeds where the "Matrix" fails in story, and it doesn t encumber the viewer with political rhetoric like "1984."\n'),
 Document(doc_id=19, text='Roger Ebert   Christian Bales\n"Equilibrium\'\' would be a mindless action picture, except that it has a mind. It doesn\'t do a lot of deep thinking, but unlike many futuristic combos of sf and f/x, it does make a statement: Freedom of opinion is a threat to totalitarian systems. Dictatorships of both the left and right are frightened by the idea of their citizens thinking too much, or having too much fun.\nThe movie deals with this notion in the most effective way, by burying it in the story and almost drowning it with entertainment. In a free society many, maybe most, audience members will hardly notice the message. But there are nations and religions that would find this movie dangerous. You know who you are.\nThe movie is set in the 21st century--hey! that\'s our century!--at a time after the Third World War. That war was caused, it is believed, because citizens felt too much and too deeply. They got all worked up and started bombing each other. To assure world peace and the survival of the human race, everyone has been put on obligatory doses of Prozium, a drug that dampens the emotions and shuts down our sensual side. (Hint: The working title of this movie was "Librium.") In the movie, enforcers known as Clerics have the mandate to murder those who are considered Sense Offenders. This is a rich irony, since True Believers, not Free Thinkers, are the ones eager to go to war over their beliefs. If you believe you have the right to kill someone because of your theology, you are going about God\'s work in your way, not His.\nChristian Bale stars in "Equilibrium," as Cleric John Preston, partnered with Partridge (Sean Bean) as a top-level enforcer. Nobody can look dispassionate in the face of outrageous provocation better than Bale, and he proves it here after his own wife is incinerated for Sense Offenses. "What did you feel?" he is asked. "I didn\'t feel anything," he replies, and we believe him, although perhaps this provides a clue about his wife\'s need to Offend.\nPreston is a top operative, but is hiding something. We see him pocketing a book that turns out to be the collected poetry of W.B. Yeats, a notorious Sense Offender. He has kept it, he explains, to better understand the enemy (the same reason censors have historically needed to study pornography). His duties bring him into contact with Mary O\'Brien (Emily Watson), and he feels--well, it doesn\'t matter what he feels. To feel at all is the offense. Knowing that, but remembering Mary, he deliberately stops taking his Prozium: He loves being a Cleric, but, oh, you id.\nIf "Equilibrium" has a plot borrowed from 1984, Brave New World and other dystopian novels, it has gunfights and martial arts borrowed from the latest advances in special effects. More rounds of ammunition are expended in this film than in any film I can remember, and I remember "The Transporter." I learn from Nick Nunziata at CHUD.com that the form of battle used in the movie is "Gun-Kata," which is "a martial art completely based around guns." I credit Nunziata because I think he may have invented this term. The fighters transcribe the usual arcs in mid-air and do impossible acrobatics, but mostly use guns instead of fists and feet. That would seem to be cheating, and involves a lot of extra work (it is much easier to shoot someone without doing a back-flip), but since the result is loud and violent it is no doubt worth it.\nThere is an opening sequence in which Preston and Partridge approach an apartment where Offenders are holed up, and Preston orders the lights to be turned out in the apartment. Then he enters in the dark. As nearly as I could tell, he is in the middle of the floor, surrounded by Offenders with guns. A violent gun battle breaks out, jerkily illuminated by flashes of the guns, and everyone is killed but Preston. There is nothing about this scene that even attempts to be plausible, confirming a suspicion I have long held, that the heroes of action movies are protected by secret hexes and cannot be killed by bullets.\nThere are a lot more similar battles, which are pure kinetic energy, made of light, noise and quick cutting. They seem to have been assembled for victims of Attention Deficit Syndrome, who are a large voting block at the box office these days. The dispassionate observer such as myself, refusing to Sense Offense my way through such scenes, can nevertheless admire them as a technical exercise.\nWhat I like is the sneaky way Kurt Wimmer\'s movie advances its philosophy in between gun battles. It argues, if I am correct, that it is good to feel passion and lust, to love people and desire them, and to experience voluptuous pleasure through great works of music and art. In an early scene Cleric Preston blow-torches the \'Mona Lisa,\' the one painting you can be pretty sure most moviegoers will recognize. But in no time he is feeling joy and love, and because he is the hero, this must be good, even though his replacement partner, Cleric Brandt (Taye Diggs), suspects him, and wants to expose him.\nThe rebel group in "Equilibrium" preserves art and music (there is a touching scene where Preston listens to a jazz record), and we are reminded of Bradbury and Truffaut\'s "Fahrenheit 451," where book lovers committed banned volumes to memory. One is tempted to look benevolently upon "Equilibrium" and assume thought control can\'t happen here, but of course it can, which is why it is useful to have an action picture in which the Sense Offenders are the good guys.\n')]

equilibrium_documents

[Document(doc_id=10, text='A tedious rip-off sci-fi film, itching to be another Matrix (or, maybe just a bearable flick!), that brazenly steals everything from Orwell s 1984 novel and many other thinking man s films, with the same Dystopian agenda, such as Fahrenheit 451. It offers for the viewers of the more low rent sci-fi films the required martial-arts fight sequences and plenty of metallic techno gadgetry; and, it appeals to a more arty audience by its cleverly created totalitarian gothic set design of mixing actual Berlin locations with CGI effects. Nevertheless, it fails overall to arouse interest dramatically, conceptually or inventively. I ve seen this film s theme played out too often (and in a more spirited way) in recent films to find its well-intentioned virtues necessarily welcome or pleasing. It only adds unneeded celluloid to an increasingly tired genre!\n\nDirector-writer Kurt Wimmer (1995- One Man s Justice ), a screenwriter for such films as the 1998- Sphere,  the 1999- The Thomas Crown Affair  and the 2003- The Recruit,  never got this  baby  off the ground. The banal dialogue was risible (a prime example has the humanist heroine played by Emily Watson in all seriousness state:  Without love, breath is just a clock ticking ), the main action hero, Christian Bale, was miscast. His stiff actions were too self-conscious and deliberate to fill the role of an action hero. The bleak settings were uninspiring; the overall grey effect was more stunting than enlightening. What becomes most annoying is that it strings together a bunch of clich s from just about every sci-fi film and the melodrama never becomes anything more than a silly exercise in acting silly. It s a film that, quite frankly, offers little entertainment value or much of anything else (it even fails to answer most of the challenging questions it raises about state-controlled suppression).\n\nEquilibrium takes place in a futuristic world in the 21st-century post-WWIII. It resembles a fascist state where books are burned and no emotions are allowed in the belief this will prevent an uprising and another world war. John Preston (Christian Bale) is the highest ranking Grammaton ninjalike cleric in Libria, where he s a police enforcer (using a new fight technique called  Gun-Kata ) going on missions to root out all rebels who haven t taken their required daily dose of the emotion suppressing Prozium; and, he s also around to rid the world of literature, art and sentimental relics of the past. Preston catches cleric partner Partridge (Sean Bean) sneaking off with a book of poetry by WB Yeats, and turns him over to the state authorities. Partridge s expected fate is as doomed as Preston s wife, who was executed for Sense Offences (leaving him a widower with two children, one of them training in the monastery to be a cleric). But the tricky Partridge before he departs this dystopia, tells his robotic partner  I spread my dreams under your feet. \n\nBefore you can say  let s burn some more books  all of the following things happen to Preston: he s given a new uptight cleric partner, Brandt (Taye Diggs), who may be able to read his mind, he s impressed with the unrepentant sense offender he arrested Mary O Brien (Emily Watson), and he s letting some feelings into his hard interior as he takes pity on a stray puppy. This leads him to tell his big boss, Dupont (Angus MacFadyen), he wants to go after and permanently wipe out the underground movement (those that have stopped taking their drugs and are trying to save the items that have been banned). But Preston has become converted to the rebel s side by the feelings seeping through him, and he now aims to kill his society s leader Father (another way of saying Big Brother) with the help of the underground workers, and therefore hopes by contacting the rebels it will lead to a revolution.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=11, text='Equilibrium doesn\'t so much invoke a feeling of excitement as it does deja vu. Like George Orwell\'s 1984, the events take place in a bleak future where emotion is forbidden, and all those who exhibit it are arrested and exterminated. Like The Matrix, there\'s "Gun Fu," (or Gun-Kata, if you prefer) the type of gun-play ballet that displays quick-cut carnage in slow-motion, opera-like exhilaration. Like Ray Bradbury\'s Fahrenheit 451, the totalitarian government sends out specially trained agents in search of valuable works of art to be destroyed in a "baptism of fire." Bits and pieces of many other genres and classic films offer much of the rest, from German expressionism to martial arts to Blade Runner\'s claustrophobic look around the city.\n\nThe events of Equilibrium take place in a post-apocalyptic world where the human race has been reduced to living in a land called Libria. The government that is instituted is a totalitarian one, under the iron thumb of someone called the "Father," (Pertwee, Formula 51) who has outlawed any form of emotion in a way to prevent war and violence. Even artifacts that might inspire emotion, such as paintings and poetry, are forbidden to own or look at. The entire population is under sedation from a drug they must take to balance their emotions, and not doing so is also cause for removal from society.\nJohn Preston (Bale, Reign of Fire) is a Clerick, a dangerous policeman with special powers in the form of martial arts training and an ability to sense emotions. He is the best at what he does, but finds himself curious as to what emotions are, and when he meets an attractive woman who is part of the rebellion, he is conflicted where his loyalties lie.\n\nWhile all of these homages make the film interesting, unfortunately the presentation offers little new. The Matrix combined many genres into a unique new hybrid, but Equilibrium only regurgitates the lifted themes without anything new to add. The result is an uneven experience, because we like the themes presented, but they are conceived in such a simplistic way that the film has little credibility as a possible vision of what an actual future might be like. The fighting is exhilarating, yet somehow feels uneven when juxtaposed with the somber mood of the rest of the story.  Yet, without it Equilibrium might feel like a two-hour long ad for Calvin Klein\'s "Obsession," starring Dieter from SNL\'s "Sprockets."\nEquilibrium might be entertaining if you\'ve never heard of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, or any of the other films which might dip from the same thematic sci-fi pool for inspiration.  However, if you are on that level already, you\'d be better off watching any of the film versions of either book, as they are far better than Equilibrium all-around.  It\'s a film so bland, that if the nation of Librium ever were to come into existence in the future, there would be no need to destroy any copies of this film.  It\'s hard to evoke any emotions watching drama this disinteresting.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=12, text="Equilibrium is a movie in search of a plot. Writer/director Kurt Wimmer (One Tough Bastard) came up with a fascinating concept: combining martial arts with gunplay. It's pretty derivative of  and any John Woo movie, with the main difference that it incorporates guns and firing into martial arts movements. With such a good idea, he apparently felt the need to make a science fiction movie, and not thinking of anything else, came up with a highly formulaic movie reminiscent of many other films that came before. Oddly enough, Equilibrium, although nearly completely brainless, is fairly enjoyable. Wimmer may not be the best writer, but he does have a keen eye for action and fight choreography.\nThe concept behind Equilibrium is that emotions are considered evil. The public takes daily injections of Prozium, a drug that suppresses any and all emotion, and the Grammaton Clerics, a police force, patrol looking for 'sense offenders,' people who go off Prozium. The Clerics are masters at the aforementioned art, which uses movements based on statistical probabilities. They move their bodies into the positions least likely to be in the line of fire, and fire where they are most likely to hit targets. John Preston (Christian Bale) is the best Cleric there is, and finds himself accidentally going off Prozium. He revels in these new emotions he is feeling, and finds himself torn between these emotions and his duties as a Cleric.\nHis new partner Brandt (Taye Diggs) suspects that something is amiss. The rest of Equilibrium is typical science fiction/oppressed society fare (think 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 mixed together). Preston slowly realizes what is truly happening, and goes in search of a rebel movement bent on toppling the government. Emily Watson of all people even makes an appearance. Equilibrium does get better, if not more familiar, as it progresses. Part of the reason is that Wimmer needs to spend time establishing his universe. Mostly it is because as Preston rebels further, he has more opportunity to kick butt.\nLately, Bale seems to be gravitating towards a more action-oriented role. Preston is a combination of his characters. Dressed to the nines, Preston coolly fires hundreds of rounds, managing to hit everybody all the while missing every bullet aimed at him. Watching him flip and jump is so graceful it is almost like ballet. The last 20 minutes or so of the film is almost one kinetic action sequence, full of guns, swords, and an exhilarating fist fight where both opponent are also trying to fire guns at each other. There is also something fun and completely unrealistic about watching a man completely incapacitate a circle of men around him pointing swords and/or guns at him. The camera work owes much to other action films, but Wimmer does a great job filming his sequences. Well, everything about Equilibrium owes much to other films. But in this brainless romp is an element of excitement, which makes it a little bit better than most of its fellow copycats."),
 Document(doc_id=13, text="Three Movie Buffs\nPatrick - Negative\n\nEquilibrium attempts to say something profound about human nature but winds up being just another derivative dystopian future flick that combines ideas borrowed from twentieth century literary classics (think Fahrenheit 451, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Brave New World) with action fight scenes copied from The Matrix movies. An opening voice-over narration sets the scene,  In the first years of the 21st century, a third World War broke out. Those of us who survived knew mankind could never survive a fourth; that our own volatile natures could simply no longer be risked. So we have created a new arm of the law: The Grammaton Cleric, whose sole task it is to seek out and eradicate the true source of man's inhumanity to man - his ability to feel. \n \nChristian Bale stars as John Preston, one such cleric. He enforces the law against sense offenders   anyone caught having an emotion   seeking them out and destroying their hidden stashes of art   all of which is considered contraband and outlawed. To not very subtly make this point, at the beginning of the movie there is a scene where John Preston finds and destroys the Mona Lisa. All the citizens of Libria are forced to take daily dosages of an emotion suppressing drug called Prozium. Their leader is a mysterious figure known simply as Father. He is never seen in public but appears only via large screens.\n \nOne day Preston's partner is caught reading (gasp) a book of poems by William Butler Yeats. Preston is shocked to discover that his partner was not only a sense offender but that he had ties to the underground rebel movement, which turns out to be -literally- right under the ground where they are standing. Will John Preston realize the error of his ways, begin to feel, and join the rebels? Hmm, I wonder? And will he at some point find an old Victrola and a phonograph record of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, listen to it and burst into tears? Maybe.\n \nWhile this is a somewhat intriguing idea it doesn't translate easily to the screen. Think about it, you have a movie where the majority of the characters are supposed to be incapable of experiencing a genuine emotion. A complete lack of feeling is a difficult thing to act and quite dull to watch. Christian Bale does a decent job but Taye Diggs seems to be constantly smirking.\n \nEmily Watson is the female lead. She plays a sense offender named Mary who's apprehended by John Preston. Together they have the best dialogue in the movie...\n \nMary:  Why are you alive? \n \nJohn Preston:  I'm alive... I live... to safeguard the continuity of this great society. To serve\nLibria. \n \nMary:  It's circular. You exist to continue your existence. What's the point? \n \nJohn Preston:  What's the point of your existence? \n \nMary:  To feel. 'Cause you've never done it, you can never know it. But it's as vital as breath. And without it, without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock... ticking. \n \nThe Matrix style action sequences involve a new form of martial arts that combines karate with weaponry. It's called the gun katas and it enables someone to somehow miraculously dodge bullets at close range simply by learning the statistics of the different likely angles. It is never satisfactorily explained and is one of the sillier aspects of a movie that constantly walks the line between fantasy and ludicrousness.\n \nThe cinematography is nice and the sets are quite effective. Writer/director Kurt Wimmer (an American of German descent) shot many scenes at locations in Berlin, like Olympic Stadium, Deutschlandhalle, and the Brandenburg Gate in order to give the movie the right combination of  fascist  and  modern  architecture. The scenes set in the exterior of the city, where many of the rebels hide, were shot in partially dilapidated neighborhoods in East Berlin.\n \nEquilibrium has its moments but overall it's a rehash of ideas put to better use elsewhere."),
 Document(doc_id=14, text='I tried watching Equilibrium a few years ago, but could not get past the first ridiculous action scene. Armed rebels have the high ground but are pathetically inept against the police. Bale kicks in a door, slides on it like a surfboard and then pauses dramatically in a pitch black room before opening fire and killing everyone in the room without mussing his hair. Seeing that Patrick reviewed it, I gave it a second look, unfortunately.\nThe real problem I have with this film is that the very premise itself is vastly flawed. As Patrick wrote, this dystopian future is a place where the population is controlled by an oppressive government that attempts to squash human emotion with a drug called Prozium. Art, literature and anything else that may cause an emotional reaction is illegal. This makes for a dark view of the future but not a very realistic one.\nAs my brother Scott once wrote about Star Trek, good Science Fiction stories are metaphors for actual social issues. Therein lies this movies biggest problem. If a government wants to control its population, it does not do it by trying to stamp out their emotions. Feelings are too innate to the human experience to deny. If you want to control the populace, you take advantage of their emotions.\nIn the days following 9/11, the United States was in such a patriotic fervor that George W. Bush could have gotten away with any military action he wanted. Note, the Patriot Act was passed during that time. The environmental movement does not sell its theories so much on fact as it does on emotional response. I cannot count how many people have argued man made global warming to me on an emotional level. "What land will be left for our children if we allow drilling in Anwar?" "Look how sad that polar bear seems on that ice floe." All Barack Obama has to do to justify huge spending is to say it is for "Green" jobs or energy and all the believers feel better about it. My own small town gets us to vote for a tax raise by threatening to cut our police force if we don\'t. Fear is a powerful motivator.\nNo, controlling emotions is pointless and impossible. Exploiting them is where the real power comes from. You make everyone think they are making their own decision, when in fact they are simply going down the path they have been led to. It is a seemingly win win arrangement.\nDiggs does indeed smirk his way through the film, which is a contradictory way to play an emotionless person. When he arrests Preston, he clearly smiles down on him and then gets very angry with him in public. Do these guys show emotions or not? Either way, it does not matter. This film steals 1984\'s twist ending and left me wishing I had read the book again instead of watching this.\nPatrick compared the fight scenes to The Matrix and rightly so. This is made all the more similar by the familiar dark clothing worn by the leads. He wrote that the action sequences involve a new form of martial arts that combines karate with weaponry. That may have been the intention, but all I saw was lots of posing. The soundtrack should have featured Madonna\'s song "Vogue" every time Bale gets into a fight. At least then this film would have been good for a laugh.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=15, text="What happens when The Matrix and Fahrenheit 451 get drunk and careless at a party? You probably end up with something like Equilibrium. This film, pulled from distribution at the last conceivable minute and hardly seen by anyone anywhere, cannot be recommended highly enough. In the tradition of such Dark Horse hits as Boondock Saints and Office Space, Equilibrium goes out of its way to prove that just because a movie might not clean up (Or even appear) at the box office doesn t mean it won t surprise people with how well it sells once the DVD s hit the shelves.\nEquilibrium did not come out in a theater near me. I did not hear anything about it for months. Then, all of a sudden, the internet exploded with reviews; reviews which either franticly praised, or viciously condemned the film. This was my cue to go out and track a copy down. I decided to rent it and watch it with my girlfriend. I made one mistake; I watched it right after I saw The Matrix: Reloaded for the first time. I was not expecting too much from the film, I just wanted to be entertained for a few hours. Honestly I was going to get it out of the way so I could say  So that s what all the fuss was about  (Because I say things like that all the time).\nI was surprised! I was shocked! I forgot about the $13 late fee my parents racked up on our Blockbuster account and left for me to pay!  I immediately made it my business to find a copy of my own. I very nearly paid the $30 they tried to charge me at both Suncoast and Barnes & Noble. That is a testament to this movies  greatness. Normally I would balk at paying $30, even for two movies, but Equilibrium was too good for me not to be able to watch it whenever I wanted. I lucked out and snagged a used copy for 15 bucks. Let s be honest; 30 dollars is just too damn much for a DVD with virtually no special features.\nBut enough about my quest to own the film, I need to tell you about watching it. I mentioned that I had expected little from this movie. I also said I was pleasantly surprised. Pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I was as  pleasantly surprised  as someone who wins $50,000 and a boat because his neighbor filled out a raffle ticket in his name and forgot to tell him.\nThe best way to do it (if you still have a chance (most people won t)) is to do things in this precise order;\n1) See The Matrix for the first time\n2) See Equilibrium for the first time\n3) See The Matrix: Reloaded for the first time\nNow, many people, having seen the second Matrix movie don t have this luxury. If you have been in a coma or in prison for the past 6 months, you can still see Equilibrium before the brilliant sequel to The Matrix. Equilibrium will change your life the way the  Matrix  movies did. That assumes you liked those movies. If not, rent Final Destination 2. You d be much better off watching a movie on Carson Daly s recommendation.\nI realize that I have been anything but subtle in my comparing Equilibrium and The Matrix. This is deliberate. If Ray Bradbury had tried to copy The Matrix he would have written something very similar to Equilibrium. They both contain all the essential elements demanded by their target audience (horny teenage males). These essential elements include guns, 'splosions and boobies. I don t make the rules; I just shell out $10 for X2 so I can see Famke Janssen in a form-fitting body suit.\nChristian Bale plays John Preston, a special unit of law enforcement referred to as a  Gramaton Cleric . It is the duty of the Clerics to dispose of  Sense offenders ; anyone who has stopped taking their special, feeling-suppressing medication called  Prozium . Every citizen of  Libria  is required to take their Prozium on a regular interval to keep them from feeling anything because those in power believe that in this way they can stamp out war and hate crime forever.\n The job of the Gramaton Cleric is simple: find and detain sense offenders, kill sense offenders who resist arrest, and destroy anything that has been declared  EC-10  and might trigger emotion. EC apparently stands for  Emotional Content . Everything is EC-10 for the most part.  In an early scene, Preston stumbles upon a cache of paintings, including the Mona Lisa. In a scene heavily reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451, he gives the command  Burn it.  The most famous painting in all the world and countless others are evaporated by industrial flame throwers as Preston turns his back and walks away.\nI didn t love this movie so much because of the plot. I love the work of Ray Bradbury and other similar science fiction writers, but the plot is not by far the best part of this film. The action scenes steal the thunder from the plot-heavy dialogue scenes. The clerics are taught  Gun Kata s , wherein they memorize a series of predetermined movements wielding their guns much like a student of karate might wield sai s. The back story is that thousands of gun battles were studied, and the probabilities of the locations of antagonists and vectors of probable return fire were determined. In plain English, they figured out where you should stand if you don t want to get shot. A series of predetermined arm movements point the guns at the probable locations of antagonists; all that is left for the cleric to do is pull the trigger. The body moves very little, and the head does not move at all; the movement is all in the arms. These techniques are so effective that Preston dispatches about 10 armed suspects in a pitch-black room and receives no return fire.\nEach action scene showcases a different aspect of the training a cleric receives; there are sword fights, gun fights, even a gun/sword fight. The guns are used almost as daggers; parrying an opponents  gun with your own so you avoid taking a bullet. Guns are taken away and used against their owners and even as bludgeons. Nearly every conceivable use of a gun is explored in the unique and original action scenes which pepper this film. Occasionally a gun is used to shoot someone as well. The action does not get boring because each scene is different and has its own unique quirks.\nHave we learned nothing from The Matrix? I think everyone everywhere would agree; stuff looks cooler when you slow it way down. This technique was not used nearly enough in Equilibrium. Very few times was the action slowed down so that the viewer might catch everything, and have time to say to his friends  Did you SEE that?  Most of the time in this film, the answer would be  No.  The rewind button comes in handy while watching Equilibrium. I rewound quite a few times to clarify what had happened in the action scenes. Plus, a lot of the things that happen are worth seeing again (Or maybe it is just me; I watched the 4 seconds of Goodfellas where Joe Pesci is killed about 100 times before someone took the remote control away from me. Caffeine was involved.)  It would have definitely added to the film if more of the breath-taking action sequences had been slowed down so that they could be savored. The scenes were not as hard to follow as those in say, Daredevil (Whose genius idea was it to illuminate every fight scene in that movie with a strobe light?), but they could definitely have benefited from some slow-motion photography.\nThe acting in the film was phenomenal. First of all, Sean Bean can do absolutely no wrong by me. I have seen him in a handful of movies (Goldeneye, Ronin, Lord of the Rings, and Equilibrium) and I have learned two things about this actor.\n1) His character will probably not be in the second half of the movie\n2) He will turn in an excellent performance\nHe is probably one of the most underrated actors in recent memory. He gets my vote for the  Phillip Seymour Hoffman award for actors who will most likely never get the lead role in a movie anywhere other than Sundance.  Yet he always entertains, and was an excellent choice to play Errol Partridge in Equilibrium. It was either him or Phillip Seymour Hoffman.\nThen you have Christian Bale. What can I say about him without sounding like a stalker? I d better leave it at that. Christian is a very consistent actor, and he keeps a straight face in moments in the film where he is required to and most others would not have been able to. Lots of critics really bashed his performance in this movie, but they said the same thing about Ron Livingston in Office Space and his career took off after that film. I guess the best thing we can say about Christian Bale in this film is that he does about what you would expect from Christian Bale. He is the quiet guy who starts yelling at the end of his movies. Rent Swing Kids.\nThe rest of the cast does a great job as well. If someone had turned in a sub-par performance, I would let you know. No one did. Emily Watson has a kind of eerie charm that lends her a sort of strange attractiveness beyond physical beauty. Taye Diggs is .American. Thank God they put at least one American in this movie. Angus MacFayden is . angry. But he usually is. Good old passive/aggressive Angus.\nThis movie is not, however, without shortcomings. It is not going to be a candidate for a golden globe or an academy award. But damn, it s entertaining! I loved it, so who cares if the critics didn t? Gun fights and a decent plot. The plot is not an excuse for the violence, nor is it a means of ferrying the character from one fight scene to the next. It is the biggest part of the film, and draws elements from many of the great science fiction novels of the 20th century. There are some plot holes. I can t list them without giving major plot events or the outcome of the film away. If you find some, remind yourself that it is just a movie. There aren t continuity errors by any means. All in all, it was a superb film, and I have thoroughly enjoyed multiple screenings in a week s period. It is a movie one can watch again and again. Unless you hate it, in which case you can return it to the video store and drink strong coffee to wash the taste out of your mouth. It isn t for everyone, but one the other hand, it isn t another Zombie vs. Ninja, and that has to count for something.\nWhat happens when The Matrix and Fahrenheit 451 get drunk and careless at a party? You probably end up with something like Equilibrium. This film, pulled from distribution at the last conceivable minute and hardly seen by anyone anywhere, cannot be recommended highly enough. In the tradition of such Dark Horse hits as Boondock Saints and Office Space, Equilibrium goes out of its way to prove that just because a movie might not clean up (Or even appear) at the box office doesn t mean it won t surprise people with how well it sells once the DVD s hit the shelves.\nEquilibrium did not come out in a theater near me. I did not hear anything about it for months. Then, all of a sudden, the internet exploded with reviews; reviews which either franticly praised, or viciously condemned the film. This was my cue to go out and track a copy down. I decided to rent it and watch it with my girlfriend. I made one mistake; I watched it right after I saw The Matrix: Reloaded for the first time. I was not expecting too much from the film, I just wanted to be entertained for a few hours. Honestly I was going to get it out of the way so I could say  So that s what all the fuss was about  (Because I say things like that all the time).\nI was surprised! I was shocked! I forgot about the $13 late fee my parents racked up on our Blockbuster account and left for me to pay!  I immediately made it my business to find a copy of my own. I very nearly paid the $30 they tried to charge me at both Suncoast and Barnes & Noble. That is a testament to this movies  greatness. Normally I would balk at paying $30, even for two movies, but Equilibrium was too good for me not to be able to watch it whenever I wanted. I lucked out and snagged a used copy for 15 bucks. Let s be honest; 30 dollars is just too damn much for a DVD with virtually no special features.\nBut enough about my quest to own the film, I need to tell you about watching it. I mentioned that I had expected little from this movie. I also said I was pleasantly surprised. Pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I was as  pleasantly surprised  as someone who wins $50,000 and a boat because his neighbor filled out a raffle ticket in his name and forgot to tell him.\nThe best way to do it (if you still have a chance (most people won t)) is to do things in this precise order;\n1) See The Matrix for the first time\n2) See Equilibrium for the first time\n3) See The Matrix: Reloaded for the first time\nNow, many people, having seen the second Matrix movie don t have this luxury. If you have been in a coma or in prison for the past 6 months, you can still see Equilibrium before the brilliant sequel to The Matrix. Equilibrium will change your life the way the  Matrix  movies did. That assumes you liked those movies. If not, rent Final Destination 2. You d be much better off watching a movie on Carson Daly s recommendation.\nI realize that I have been anything but subtle in my comparing Equilibrium and The Matrix. This is deliberate. If Ray Bradbury had tried to copy The Matrix he would have written something very similar to Equilibrium. They both contain all the essential elements demanded by their target audience (horny teenage males). These essential elements include guns, 'splosions and boobies. I don t make the rules; I just shell out $10 for X2 so I can see Famke Janssen in a form-fitting body suit.\nChristian Bale plays John Preston, a special unit of law enforcement referred to as a  Gramaton Cleric . It is the duty of the Clerics to dispose of  Sense offenders ; anyone who has stopped taking their special, feeling-suppressing medication called  Prozium . Every citizen of  Libria  is required to take their Prozium on a regular interval to keep them from feeling anything because those in power believe that in this way they can stamp out war and hate crime forever.\n The job of the Gramaton Cleric is simple: find and detain sense offenders, kill sense offenders who resist arrest, and destroy anything that has been declared  EC-10  and might trigger emotion. EC apparently stands for  Emotional Content . Everything is EC-10 for the most part.  In an early scene, Preston stumbles upon a cache of paintings, including the Mona Lisa. In a scene heavily reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451, he gives the command  Burn it.  The most famous painting in all the world and countless others are evaporated by industrial flame throwers as Preston turns his back and walks away.\nI didn t love this movie so much because of the plot. I love the work of Ray Bradbury and other similar science fiction writers, but the plot is not by far the best part of this film. The action scenes steal the thunder from the plot-heavy dialogue scenes. The clerics are taught  Gun Kata s , wherein they memorize a series of predetermined movements wielding their guns much like a student of karate might wield sai s. The back story is that thousands of gun battles were studied, and the probabilities of the locations of antagonists and vectors of probable return fire were determined. In plain English, they figured out where you should stand if you don t want to get shot. A series of predetermined arm movements point the guns at the probable locations of antagonists; all that is left for the cleric to do is pull the trigger. The body moves very little, and the head does not move at all; the movement is all in the arms. These techniques are so effective that Preston dispatches about 10 armed suspects in a pitch-black room and receives no return fire.\nEach action scene showcases a different aspect of the training a cleric receives; there are sword fights, gun fights, even a gun/sword fight. The guns are used almost as daggers; parrying an opponents  gun with your own so you avoid taking a bullet. Guns are taken away and used against their owners and even as bludgeons. Nearly every conceivable use of a gun is explored in the unique and original action scenes which pepper this film. Occasionally a gun is used to shoot someone as well. The action does not get boring because each scene is different and has its own unique quirks.\nHave we learned nothing from The Matrix? I think everyone everywhere would agree; stuff looks cooler when you slow it way down. This technique was not used nearly enough in Equilibrium. Very few times was the action slowed down so that the viewer might catch everything, and have time to say to his friends  Did you SEE that?  Most of the time in this film, the answer would be  No.  The rewind button comes in handy while watching Equilibrium. I rewound quite a few times to clarify what had happened in the action scenes. Plus, a lot of the things that happen are worth seeing again (Or maybe it is just me; I watched the 4 seconds of Goodfellas where Joe Pesci is killed about 100 times before someone took the remote control away from me. Caffeine was involved.)  It would have definitely added to the film if more of the breath-taking action sequences had been slowed down so that they could be savored. The scenes were not as hard to follow as those in say, Daredevil (Whose genius idea was it to illuminate every fight scene in that movie with a strobe light?), but they could definitely have benefited from some slow-motion photography.\nThe acting in the film was phenomenal. First of all, Sean Bean can do absolutely no wrong by me. I have seen him in a handful of movies (Goldeneye, Ronin, Lord of the Rings, and Equilibrium) and I have learned two things about this actor.\n1) His character will probably not be in the second half of the movie\n2) He will turn in an excellent performance\nHe is probably one of the most underrated actors in recent memory. He gets my vote for the  Phillip Seymour Hoffman award for actors who will most likely never get the lead role in a movie anywhere other than Sundance.  Yet he always entertains, and was an excellent choice to play Errol Partridge in Equilibrium. It was either him or Phillip Seymour Hoffman.\nThen you have Christian Bale. What can I say about him without sounding like a stalker? I d better leave it at that. Christian is a very consistent actor, and he keeps a straight face in moments in the film where he is required to and most others would not have been able to. Lots of critics really bashed his performance in this movie, but they said the same thing about Ron Livingston in Office Space and his career took off after that film. I guess the best thing we can say about Christian Bale in this film is that he does about what you would expect from Christian Bale. He is the quiet guy who starts yelling at the end of his movies. Rent Swing Kids.\nThe rest of the cast does a great job as well. If someone had turned in a sub-par performance, I would let you know. No one did. Emily Watson has a kind of eerie charm that lends her a sort of strange attractiveness beyond physical beauty. Taye Diggs is .American. Thank God they put at least one American in this movie. Angus MacFayden is . angry. But he usually is. Good old passive/aggressive Angus.\nThis movie is not, however, without shortcomings. It is not going to be a candidate for a golden globe or an academy award. But damn, it s entertaining! I loved it, so who cares if the critics didn t? Gun fights and a decent plot. The plot is not an excuse for the violence, nor is it a means of ferrying the character from one fight scene to the next. It is the biggest part of the film, and draws elements from many of the great science fiction novels of the 20th century. There are some plot holes. I can t list them without giving major plot events or the outcome of the film away. If you find some, remind yourself that it is just a movie. There aren t continuity errors by any means. All in all, it was a superb film, and I have thoroughly enjoyed multiple screenings in a week s period. It is a movie one can watch again and again. Unless you hate it, in which case you can return it to the video store and drink strong coffee to wash the taste out of your mouth. It isn t for everyone, but one the other hand, it isn t another Zombie vs. Ninja, and that has to count for something.\n"),
 Document(doc_id=16, text='You tread on my dreams.\n\nBenjamin Franklin once said, "Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither." Such is the world of Equilibrium. Writer/Director Kurt Wimmer\'s (Ultraviolet) physical vision of a future world where the essence of humanity has been sacrificed for the sake of the physical welfare of humanity is a little stale -- and necessarily so -- but in a film like this, it\'s the theme rather than the look that counts. Equilibrium is a modern masterpiece that examines the folly of overzealous governmental/tyrannical control over a population, in this case taken to the extreme: removing the very essence of mankind for the sake of saving mankind in the physical sense, but at the price of his emotional and spiritual welfare. Indeed, in the world of Equilibrium it\'s the very things that make men free -- individuality, choice, association, emotion, ownership, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- that have been outlawed for the "betterment" of man, and while this new, sterile, inconsequential way of life may lead to physical safety, it\'s far more damaging to man than bullets or bombs. This is a no-nonsense look at the dangers of forsaking liberty for security as told in the shape of an Action/Science Fiction film. Equilibrium pulls no punches and leaves its message front-and-center in every frame, though never to the detriment of the whole.\n\nIn the not-too-distant future, war has ravaged the planet at the price of countless lives. Mankind cannot survive a fourth World War. To avoid further conflict, a totalitarian regime has risen to power and outlawed any and all things -- both physical objects and beliefs alike -- that could influence human emotion, potentially lead to disagreement, and shatter the forced state of harmony that exists following the war. Not only is art, music, poetry, and even fancy mirror borders outlawed, but man is controlled through the injection of a suppressive drug meant to ensure submission to the new way of life. The government routinely raids known strongholds of resistance where emotions remain; the drugs unused; and art, poetry, and music are present and provide emotional stimuli. Armed soldiers patrol the streets, but highly-skilled killers known as "Clerics" work hand-in-hand with the police force to deter and defeat the enemy of emotion and the rebels who harbor it. Amongst the Clerics is John Preston (Christian Bale, Terminator Salvation), an elite killing machine who is hailed as the best of the best amongst his peers and an unflappable protector of the regime\'s doctrine. He even kills his partner (Sean Bean, Flightplan) for perusing a confiscated poetry book. When Preston accidentally misses his morning dose of the emotion-stifling drug, he begins to experience emotions -- concern, regret, despair, uncertainty -- that threaten his job and his life. His new partner Brandt (Taye Diggs, Go) notices the changes and suspects Preston of harboring emotions. When Preston finally awakens to a moment of catharsis, he goes on the offensive with the purpose of eliminating the totalitarian regime that has in essence destroyed mankind for the sake of saving it.\n\nEquilibrium may be a damning look at forcible control and the dangers of sacrificing freedom for safety, but it exists in the superficial guise of an Action movie. Certainly the themes are plainly obvious but the picture is structurally a basic run-and-gun/martial arts hybrid sort of affair that demonstrates great artistic proficiency in showcasing the various skills of the "Clerics" who shoot like RoboCop and sword fight like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It\'s hard to fathom such skill in an emotionless world, how people of such natural gifts could be selected for the job when human emotions such as pride are outlawed and flaunting demonstrations of athletic skill would be, at best, frowned upon. There are certainly other liberties taken in the film, such as the remaining institution of marriage which would seem to have no bearing in a world governed through the absence of emotion, for what is marriage but an open proclamation of the greatest emotion of them all? Perhaps it\'s a means through which those in charge can guarantee themselves future "subjects" over whom to rule, but that would suggest some sense of personal satisfaction -- hubris, maybe -- at the holding of personal power and authority over others. Certainly the powers-that-be would not themselves eschew the lifestyle they force upon their subjects...would they? Regardless of a few plot holes, Equilibrium works because of its adherence to principals and a willingness to tell a daring, damning story that often feels all-too-real or, at the very least, all-too-plausibly-real in a real world where strife is common and ever-shrinking liberties are shrugged off as the necessary price to pay for safety and "happiness" by those with the loudest voice and in the highest positions of power and influence.\n\nNo matter its relative merits as an Action film or the negatives of a few question marks; the pulse of Equilibrium beats most strongly in the story. It\'s certainly not allegorical -- there are no allusions here, everything is front-and-center -- but it is instead made obvious so as to more succinctly make its point. That\'s not to the film\'s detriment; while allegory is often used to strong, tone-establishing, purpose-revealing commentary, Equilibrium\'s matter-of-fact tone resonates just as strongly and achieves the same kind of success even if the point isn\'t made in a more shadowy, undercover sense that\'s defined many of the great cautionary tales of yore. The film makes a point to emphasize the crime of individuality and the norm of conformity, the perceived dangers of emotion, and the perceived stability of the lack thereof. Though the special effects don\'t hold up well and the sets are (deliberately) stale and sterile, Equilibrium masterfully creates a mood which necessarily supersedes all else. The film\'s picture of an obviously totalitarian regime controlling a de facto slave race (to what end is never exactly revealed, though it\'s certainly implied) that has willingly sacrificed its very essence for the guarantee of security is vividly, if not sometimes too obviously, drawn, but then again the film focuses on a society built on extremes, which implies, if not demands, simplicity and the obvious above all else. The message would certainly be too heavy-handed -- though no less relevant -- without its dazzling action pieces offsetting the somber tone, but Equilibrium absolutely thrives as an achievement of film that engenders critical thinking and that speaks loudly and clearly on the dangers of the slippery slope that is the sacrifice of freedom for some idealistic but foolhardy goal that simply cannot be achieved at the business end of a gun, through the swallowing of a pill, and by the removal of any and all emotion and individuality. The human spirit is too strong.\n\nEquilibrium\'s 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer is one of those that looks good at-a-glance, but a more critical analysis reveals plenty of problems. First and foremost, the image is presented in an "HDTV full frame" 1.78:1 aspect ratio rather than its wider 2.35:1-or-thereabouts theatrical presentation. While the film is said to have been shot in Super35, the blow-up from its theatrical exhibition aspect ratio, presumably for the sake of eliminating "black bars" from the equation, is unacceptable, even if there\'s little information actually lost along the way. That said, Equilibrium doesn\'t look bad in places. Fine detail can be quite good; skin textures are often quite revealing, while clothing and even close-ups of firearms reveal crisp, accurate details. Colors are limited to cold, steely, lifeless shades for the most part; Equilibrium is by design cold and gray, but what few splashes of color exist beyond white and gray and black appear neutral and accurate. Black levels are decent, never looking washed out and exhibiting only slight, if any, crush. Flesh tones are often a bit pale, which seems in-line with the film\'s intended look. So far, so good, but Equilibrium features an over-sharpened appearance and is absolutely slathered in edge enhancement, some of the heaviest that one is ever likely to see on a Blu-ray disc. Additionally, it appears that at least some noise reduction has been applied, but only sporadically so; grain is present in some scenes, wiped away in others. Banding and blocking are of only minor concern. Remove the excess edge enhancement and display the film in its proper aspect ratio and this would be a quality transfer, but alas, it just wasn\'t meant to be this go-round.\n\nUnfortunately, Equilibrium hasn\'t received the sonic treatment the film not only deserves, but demands. The included DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack just doesn\'t cut it. Though it tries and struggles and does all it can, the sonic presentation is decidedly lacking. The front-heavy feel does a disservice to the film\'s many action scenes, where it sounds like half the soundstage has simply been chopped off. Action effects are cramped, and with the back channels effectively dead, the confined sensation puts forth a sour note. Where there should be fuller, more lively action elements, there\'s nothing. Sure, gunfire zips across the front half of the soundstage with a good deal of energy and even creates a few front-end directional effects, but that it just seems to stop dead in its tracks is jarring to say the least. This track does squeeze out a decent low end, but clarity is a real problem area in most every area save dialogue. Dialogue occasionally seems to bleed over to the side for no apparent reason, but such instances are the exception rather than the rule, the spoken word generally firmly entrenched in the center speaker and playing with suitable stability and clarity. Of all of the recent wave of 2.0 rather than 5.1 soundtracks, this might be the most adversely-effected film. A lossy 5.1 mix would have been preferable to a two-channel lossless offering in this instance, never mind a full-fledged 5.1 lossless soundtrack.\n\nEquilibrium\'s Blu-ray release actually contains one extra, a featurette entitled Finding \'Equlibrium\' (480p, 4:26). It\'s a disappointingly brief and by-the-numbers rapid-fire making-of piece that features cast and crew talking up the movie, intercut with clips form the film and behind-the-scenes footage.\n\nEquilibrium rings true, or rings with a potential to be true, with every viewing. In it, people are sheep and the human condition has all but been eradicated under the false premise of safety and security. Of course, it\'s all about the price one must pay for such things, and in Equilibrium, that\'s the soul, at least figuratively speaking. This is an engaging and wonderfully thought-provoking picture that explores the value of human life in the physical sense versus the spiritual and emotional senses. There\'s so much talk about "safety" and "security" both in the film and in real life that one must decide what the true price of liberty must be and on what is placed a higher value: the body or the soul. Is life truly worth living - - and may it even be called living -- if man forcibly devolves into mindless, drug-controlled robots who serve no purpose either in their own lives or for the greater good of society? Equilibrium posits such questions while in the guise of an Action picture, but make no mistake, this is much more than that. Unfortunately, Echo Bridge\'s Blu-ray release of this important and cult-favorite film features a subpar technical presentation and only one extra. Viewers must choose how much they will sacrifice to own a neutered copy of the film. Quite the parallel to the picture\'s themes, no? Oh the irony.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=17, text='Bale Bales on the Future\nOn one hand "Equilibrium" bores me; I\'m bored of movies which feature a dystopian future where a government is making everyone\'s life a misery. But then on the other hand this future world where feeling is repressed by daily drugs is quite clever and features action which can only be described as Matrix-esque in style which makes it surprisingly entertaining. It even manages to draw you in to the story of Feeling Officer John Preston and you wonder what will happen in the end, as in will he save certain people, be discovered and so on serving up twists which don\'t let you down. As such "Equilibrium" does a reasonable job of entertaining with its idea of a future where feelings are outlawed and an elite force destroy those who chose to have feelings and own such contraband items which cause feelings.\nFollowing a Third World War it is decided that the emotions are the cause of war and in order to eliminate war the freedom to feel must be suppressed with those renegades who chose not to comply and have contraband goods such as books and records being exterminated. Grammaton Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale - Captain Corelli\'s Mandolin) is one of the top enforcement officers whose job it is to destroy all contraband and those who refuse to take a daily injection to suppress their emotions. But when he accidentally misses a dose he finds himself discovering a new and confusing world where he has emotions but somehow has to hide this fact from those who would kill him if they knew.\n\nSo as already mentioned "Equilibrium" is another one of those movies which paint a grim picture of the future, a future where following a third world war the freedom to have feelings is outlawed as those who rule decide feelings are behind mankinds self destruction. Now I\'m just a little bored of these movies which paint a dystopian future for the simple reason that they always seem to be a government who have messed up society by their dictatorial rule. Yes the symbolism in "Equilibrium" which obvious mirrors that of Hitler and the Nazi\'s is semi clever but on one level it is just another futuristic movie where we have misery thanks to the government and a bunch of renegades fighting oppression.\nBut get beyond this and there is some intelligence to "Equilibrium" especially that the oppression comes from suppressing feelings as it is seen as the cause of conflict and mankind\'s destruction. And as we watch John Preston initially forget to take his daily drug and experience emotion for the first time it does become interesting. It delivers some interesting scenarios where he tries to keep up the masquerade of being emotionless as he goes about his job yet battles to hide the feelings which are so alien to him. You just have to smile when it is the discovery of a dog which almost blows his cover, as he can\'t bear to see it exterminated.\nWhat also helps "Equilibrium" is that it twists and turns and whilst it sets up the cliche element of John being the saviour of the renegades as he is the only one who can stop the Father\'s dictatorial rule it also throws up some surprises. It\'s because of these surprises, these twists which end up lifting "Equilibrium" into becoming something genuinely exciting and more that just will he or won\'t he help the renegades regain control.\nNow in lesser hands "Equilibrium" could have been quite dull but writer and director Kurt Wimmer brings a touch of the "Matrix" to it. Not in the sense that not is all that it seems but when it comes to the action it has that same snappy, punchy feel to it. Scenes which see John take down both renegades and officers with some fancy moves and a lot of gun action may feel a bit like an imitation but they are exciting. And Wimmer embellishes the action nicely, advancing the style which we witnessed in "The Matrix" so it adds something new to it, something as simple as the way John\'s guns reload during battle. But it is not all about the action and Wimmer uses the snappy action to punctuate the drama of the story rather than it just being what bad ass move John will do next.\nThat "Matrix" styling also comes to the actual look of the future and in particular the slick hair and long coat of Christian Bale as John Preston. But what is interesting is the harshness of this look softens in tune with when he starts to feel emotions again. Aside from this Christian Bale does a solid job of making John interesting, allowing us to understand the confusion and fear he feels when for the first time he feels emotion. It\'s not the deepest of characters but it works especially when it comes to the action scenes. And to be honest whilst "Equilibrium" also features Sean Bean, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs and Angus MacFadyen it is Bale who really drives this movie forwards, with maybe the exception of young Matthew Harbour who is terrific and quite scary as John\'s emotionless son.\nWhat this all boils down to is that as Dystopian movies go "Equilibrium" isn\'t that bad. Behind the obviousness of a miserable future where renegades try to over throw a dictatorial government there is some cleverness and whilst it is obvious that John Preston will be some form of saviour characters there are plenty of twists before we even get close to that outcome. It is very Matrix-esque in style and the action is one of the highlights of the movie but it does have the solid storyline to back it up and stop it just from becoming another futuristic action movie.\n'),
 Document(doc_id=18, text='A Constantly Racing Mind\nRobert Barbere\n\nIn the first years of the 21st century, a third World War broke out. Those of us who survived knew mankind could never survive a fourth; that our own volatile natures could simply no longer be risked. So we have created a new arm of the law: The Grammaton Cleric, whose sole task it is to seek out and eradicate the true source of man\'s inhumanity to man - his ability to feel.\n\nwhen it comes to rebellion in a dystopian society, there has to be giant screens with the dictator\'s face pontificating pablum for the proletariat masses. That is the world of "Equilibrium" and the land of Libria. After a third world war, the survivors of Librium decided that it is the unchecked emotions that humans fall prey to that are the root cause of violence and war. Taking a hint form the Stoics of Ancient Greece, the Librians have outlawed emotions declaring it Sense Crime. Unlike the Vulcans of the "Star Trek" universe who replaced emotions with logic, the people of Libria medicate themselves daily with a drug called Prozium, an emotion stabilizer that keeps the population in check. In this seemingly sterilized world of modern, tall, fascist looking buildings, armed guards stand on the sidelines in their black visor helmets constantly vigilant for any form of Sense Crime. Even the young children participate in the witch-hunt. In charge of much of this are the Grammaton Clerics, a quasi-religious - arm of the law who lead the charge against emotion. Writer and director Kurt Wimmer ("The Thomas Crown Affair") provides the audience with a social message buried in the spectacular Gun Kata fights. Christian Bales stars as a conflicted cleric who like all protagonists in any dystopian rebellion must overcome his own feelings or in this case lack of them to bring down The System. Due to the amount of violence, the MPAA rates "Equilibrium" R and the film runs about an hour and forty-seven minutes.\nThe great nepenthe. Opiate of our masses. Glue of our great society. Salve and salvation, it has delivered us from pathos, from sorrow, the deepest chasms of melancholy and hate. With it, we anesthetize grief, annihilate jealousy, obliterate rage. Those sister impulses towards joy, love, and elation are anesthetized in stride, we accept as fair sacrifice. For we embrace Prozium in its unifying fullness and all that it has done to make us great. ~ Father\n\nAlthough "Equilibrium" is derivative in many ways, drawing from the works of Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury, writer and director Kurt Wimmer packages the concepts of freedom of thought nicely into a film that doesn\'t dwell too deeply in the philosophy, but utilizes action elements that will appeal to the adrenaline or the video game junkies. Christian Bale is Cleric John Preston. Dressed in black with a high collar, he and his partner Errol Partridge (Sean Bean - "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring") enter a building outside the city in the Nether that was identified as a resistance stronghold for The Underground. Along with squads of police, some in riot gear, they come to a room where the offenders plan to make their last stand. In "Matrix" fashion, with monastic vocalizing in the background, Preston runs toward the door, knocking it down, in the dark, he begins a gunfight that seems impossible to win. The strobe like glimpses of gunfire as Preston performs a ballet in the dark with twin fully automatic Beretta 92FS. When the lights go on, all are dead except for Preston. His partner and the rest of the squad enter and after a brief inspection, Preston orders that the police hack through the floorboards. Underneath are rare classical paintings including Leonardo DaVinci\'s "Mona Lisa." Like the fireman in "Fahrenheit 451," Preston calmly orders all the pictures burned. \nHad I the heavens\' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet:\nBut I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet;\nTread softly, because you tread on my dreams. ~ William Butler Yeats\n\nPreston\'s career so far is stunning, his intuition of what people are thinking, and his faith in the Tetragrammaton Council seems unshakeable, until today. Returning to the city with his partner, both sitting in the backseat, Preston notices a poetry book in Partridges coat pocket. When Preston asks him about it, Partridge s answer raises a red flag in Preston\'s mind. In totalitarian societies that we, as viewers, have come to know, suspicion is a virtue. The government encourages children to denounce their parents and friends to turn on friends. In a supposedly emotionless society, this betrayal is just par for the course. In Orwell\'s "1984," he surrounds us of images of Big Brother, but here in Libria, Father played by Sean Pertwee ("Event Horizon," "Dog Soldiers") doesn\'t have much of a role in this film, but his voice and his image is everywhere dictating the benefits of Prozium to a blank staring society. Similar to "1984," a poem voices the central theme of the film. Preston, led by his suspicions, finds Partridge in a crumbling cathedral the Nethers, sitting and reading William Butler Yeats\' "He wishes for the cloths of heaven." Preston shoots Partridge in the head. Here, the poem instills the theme of "Equilibrium" in both Preston\'s mind and the viewers. Wimmer doesn\'t want to make a political statement, but instead the message is more spiritual or philosophical that strikes out against unity and conformity.\n\nAfter Preston accidentally loses, one of his doses of Prozium, his 12-year-old son, with a deadpan look and monotone voice commands his father to, "Log the loss, and get a refill." The boy is cold and menacing, as he asks his father about seeing a boy cry, "should I report him?" Preston who hasn\'t refilled his dose and his emotions are beginning to kick in, almost faltering, "yes, of course you should.  We all know emotions are a powerful thing, and it is a measure of a man who can control his emotions. Preston\'s new partner, Brandt (Taye Diggs - "Go"), is a Cleric whose ambition is set for the top, and being at the top means deposing Preston. During a raid within Libria, Preston and Brandt come across another member of the Underground, a Mary O\'Brien (Emily Watson - "Red Dragon"). Arrested for Sense Crime, they take Mary away. After having a wall torn away, Preston finds objects that come from a time before the war, a time when people could still feel, still have emotion. As emotions begin to take control, Preston is caught rearranging his desk, making it different from the others. He is almost caught by Brandt. While cleaning up on another raid, where Preston was almost caught letting some offenders go, he finds himself in a room filled with more artifacts. The room, like V\'s room from "V is for Vendetta," the room is filled with art, literature and music. Preston accidently starts up an old Victrola with Beethoven\'s  Ninth Symphony, First Movement.  Preston is wracked with emotion; memories of his wife, incinerated for Sense Crime come flooding back. The assumption here is that marriage and breeding are purely biological acts and have no emotional encumbrances. \n\nThrough analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, the Cleric has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically predictable element. The gun kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increase to lethal proficiency makes the master of the gun katas an adversary not to be taken lightly.   Vice Councilor Dupont\n\nWith music, art, and literature outlawed, the council has divested society of most of its attachments leaving only rote adherence to the Tetragrammaton Council. Here, the Tetragram is a quasi-religious symbol representing the theonym for the four letters that represent the name of God in Hebrew. The T symbol is all present in Libria, representing the lower half of the cross, giving a subconscious under tone of religion throughout the film. The cleric is part priest and part warrior. Like the Shaolin priest who practices the martial art of Kung Fu (Wushu), the Clerics are masters in Gun Fu or better known in Libria as the Gun-Kata, A set of forms that optimize the number of victims during a gun battle. Preston is the master, but Brandt is close behind. Without Prozium, Preston questions his superiors, and while he finds their answers lacking, they find him losing faith in their cause. The battle between Brandt and Preston becomes one of cat and mouse as Preston attempts to contact the underground. Tricks within tricks, feints within feints, the viewer is left guessing if the resistance is real or not. Garth (William Fichtner - "The Perfect Storm"), a friend of Partridge, leads The Underground as they blow up Prozium plants within the city. \n\nThe ending of the film is spectacular in the sense of the thought that Wimmer put into the script and Bale\'s effort in both the acting department as well as in the action scenes. Much of the ending is "Matrix" like but better in ways that make the film worth watching. The cast is primarily British, including Bale, and includes Americans Taye Diggs and William Fichtner who all do an excellent job in building their characters and the world around them. Vice Councilor Dupont (Angus Macfadyen    Braveheart ) shares the title of antagonist with Brandt when it comes holding the people of Libria down in their controlled state. The film\'s composer, Klaus Badelt, brings a solid depth to the film, while Dion Beebe\'s cinematography depicts more of an alternative world rather than something futuristic or apocalyptic. Wimmer\'s choice to film in Berlin gives Libria a solid totalitarian look. Overall, "Equilibrium" succeeds where the "Matrix" fails in story, and it doesn t encumber the viewer with political rhetoric like "1984."\n'),
 Document(doc_id=19, text='Roger Ebert   Christian Bales\n"Equilibrium\'\' would be a mindless action picture, except that it has a mind. It doesn\'t do a lot of deep thinking, but unlike many futuristic combos of sf and f/x, it does make a statement: Freedom of opinion is a threat to totalitarian systems. Dictatorships of both the left and right are frightened by the idea of their citizens thinking too much, or having too much fun.\nThe movie deals with this notion in the most effective way, by burying it in the story and almost drowning it with entertainment. In a free society many, maybe most, audience members will hardly notice the message. But there are nations and religions that would find this movie dangerous. You know who you are.\nThe movie is set in the 21st century--hey! that\'s our century!--at a time after the Third World War. That war was caused, it is believed, because citizens felt too much and too deeply. They got all worked up and started bombing each other. To assure world peace and the survival of the human race, everyone has been put on obligatory doses of Prozium, a drug that dampens the emotions and shuts down our sensual side. (Hint: The working title of this movie was "Librium.") In the movie, enforcers known as Clerics have the mandate to murder those who are considered Sense Offenders. This is a rich irony, since True Believers, not Free Thinkers, are the ones eager to go to war over their beliefs. If you believe you have the right to kill someone because of your theology, you are going about God\'s work in your way, not His.\nChristian Bale stars in "Equilibrium," as Cleric John Preston, partnered with Partridge (Sean Bean) as a top-level enforcer. Nobody can look dispassionate in the face of outrageous provocation better than Bale, and he proves it here after his own wife is incinerated for Sense Offenses. "What did you feel?" he is asked. "I didn\'t feel anything," he replies, and we believe him, although perhaps this provides a clue about his wife\'s need to Offend.\nPreston is a top operative, but is hiding something. We see him pocketing a book that turns out to be the collected poetry of W.B. Yeats, a notorious Sense Offender. He has kept it, he explains, to better understand the enemy (the same reason censors have historically needed to study pornography). His duties bring him into contact with Mary O\'Brien (Emily Watson), and he feels--well, it doesn\'t matter what he feels. To feel at all is the offense. Knowing that, but remembering Mary, he deliberately stops taking his Prozium: He loves being a Cleric, but, oh, you id.\nIf "Equilibrium" has a plot borrowed from 1984, Brave New World and other dystopian novels, it has gunfights and martial arts borrowed from the latest advances in special effects. More rounds of ammunition are expended in this film than in any film I can remember, and I remember "The Transporter." I learn from Nick Nunziata at CHUD.com that the form of battle used in the movie is "Gun-Kata," which is "a martial art completely based around guns." I credit Nunziata because I think he may have invented this term. The fighters transcribe the usual arcs in mid-air and do impossible acrobatics, but mostly use guns instead of fists and feet. That would seem to be cheating, and involves a lot of extra work (it is much easier to shoot someone without doing a back-flip), but since the result is loud and violent it is no doubt worth it.\nThere is an opening sequence in which Preston and Partridge approach an apartment where Offenders are holed up, and Preston orders the lights to be turned out in the apartment. Then he enters in the dark. As nearly as I could tell, he is in the middle of the floor, surrounded by Offenders with guns. A violent gun battle breaks out, jerkily illuminated by flashes of the guns, and everyone is killed but Preston. There is nothing about this scene that even attempts to be plausible, confirming a suspicion I have long held, that the heroes of action movies are protected by secret hexes and cannot be killed by bullets.\nThere are a lot more similar battles, which are pure kinetic energy, made of light, noise and quick cutting. They seem to have been assembled for victims of Attention Deficit Syndrome, who are a large voting block at the box office these days. The dispassionate observer such as myself, refusing to Sense Offense my way through such scenes, can nevertheless admire them as a technical exercise.\nWhat I like is the sneaky way Kurt Wimmer\'s movie advances its philosophy in between gun battles. It argues, if I am correct, that it is good to feel passion and lust, to love people and desire them, and to experience voluptuous pleasure through great works of music and art. In an early scene Cleric Preston blow-torches the \'Mona Lisa,\' the one painting you can be pretty sure most moviegoers will recognize. But in no time he is feeling joy and love, and because he is the hero, this must be good, even though his replacement partner, Cleric Brandt (Taye Diggs), suspects him, and wants to expose him.\nThe rebel group in "Equilibrium" preserves art and music (there is a touching scene where Preston listens to a jazz record), and we are reminded of Bradbury and Truffaut\'s "Fahrenheit 451," where book lovers committed banned volumes to memory. One is tempted to look benevolently upon "Equilibrium" and assume thought control can\'t happen here, but of course it can, which is why it is useful to have an action picture in which the Sense Offenders are the good guys.\n')]

Qualitative Term Determinations

Terms Determined by Document of Interest

candidate_terms = list(set([
 'john',
 'preston',
 'grammaton',
 'cleric',
 'equilibrium',
 'movie',
 'christian',
 'bale',
 'opium',
 'prozium',
 'drug',
 'emotion',
 'art',
 'poetry',
 'man',
 '1984',
 'future',
 'sense',
 'offenders',
 'matrix',
 'sci-fi',
 'george',
 'orwell',
 'kurt',
 'wimmer',
 'fahrenheit',
 '451',
 'book',
 'i',
 'partner',
 'sea',
 'bean',
 'yeats',
 'director',
 'write',
 'world',
 'father',
 'plot',
 'music',
 'dose',
 'john',
 'woo',
 'film',
 'center',
 'soldier',
 'government',
 'cinematrography',
 'dion beebe',
 'control',
 'society',
 'guards',
 'streets',
 'warriors',
 'rebels',
 'professional',
 'wife',
 'feeling',
 'brandt',
 'taye diggs',
 'secret',
 'career',
 'stadium',
 'messages',
 'libria',
 'contraband',
 'records',
 'literature',
 'faith',
 'authority',
 'death',
 'colleagues',
 'son',
 'range',
 'depth',
 'rival',
 'rip-off',
 'thinking',
 'man',
 'dystopia',
 'agenda',
 'viewer',
 'martial-arts',
 'fight',
 'gadget',
 'design',
 'berlin',
 'cgi',
 'effects',
 'interest',
 'theme',
 'virtue',
 'celluloid'
 ]))

CountVectorizer

sklearn.feature_extraction.text.CountVectorizer:
Convert a collection of text documents to a matrix of token counts.
This implementation produces a sparse representation of the counts using scipy.sparse.csr_matrix.
If you do not provide an a-priori dictionary and you do not use an analyzer that does some kind of feature selection then the number of features will be equal to the vocabulary size found by analyzing the data.

vectorizer = CountVectorizer(ngram_range=(1, 1))
text_for_counts = [x.text for x in normalized_documents]
matrix = vectorizer.fit_transform(text_for_counts)
words = vectorizer.get_feature_names_out()
word_counts = pd.DataFrame(matrix.toarray(), columns=words, index=corpus_df.Doc_ID)

add_flags(word_counts, equilibrium_doc_ids, scifi_doc_ids)
word_counts['Doc_ID'] = word_counts.index

# Collect result into a dataframe
mean_frequencies = pd.DataFrame(index=candidate_terms)

equilibrium_mean_frequencies = word_counts[word_counts.is_equilibrium][[x for x in candidate_terms if x in word_counts.columns]].mean()
mean_frequencies['Equilibrium'] = equilibrium_mean_frequencies

scifi_mean_frequencies = word_counts[word_counts.is_scifi][[x for x in candidate_terms if x in word_counts.columns]].mean()
mean_frequencies['All Sci-Fi'] = scifi_mean_frequencies

non_scifi_mean_frequencies = word_counts[~word_counts.is_scifi][[x for x in candidate_terms if x in word_counts.columns]].mean()
mean_frequencies['All Non-Sci-Fi'] = non_scifi_mean_frequencies

mean_frequencies.fillna(0.0).sort_values(['Equilibrium', 'All Sci-Fi', 'All Non-Sci-Fi'], ascending=False).head(50)

	Equilibrium	All Sci-Fi	All Non-Sci-Fi
equilibrium	8.10	1.64	0.00
film	7.50	5.24	4.02
preston	7.10	1.42	0.00
movie	4.90	2.98	3.22
matrix	3.40	0.80	0.07
world	2.80	1.58	0.59
sense	2.80	1.04	0.41
bale	2.80	0.58	0.01
cleric	2.70	0.58	0.00
john	2.60	1.26	0.19
emotion	2.50	0.60	0.05
christian	2.30	0.48	0.01
future	1.80	1.24	0.15
prozium	1.80	0.36	0.00
plot	1.70	0.82	0.59
wimmer	1.60	0.32	0.00
art	1.40	0.60	0.10
fight	1.40	0.46	0.15
offenders	1.40	0.30	0.00
libria	1.40	0.28	0.00
man	1.30	1.26	0.55
society	1.30	0.42	0.03
partner	1.30	0.38	0.06
government	1.10	0.32	0.05
fahrenheit	1.10	0.22	0.00
control	1.00	0.44	0.09
feeling	1.00	0.34	0.09
drug	1.00	0.28	0.05
brandt	1.00	0.20	0.00
book	0.80	0.58	0.25
father	0.80	0.20	0.31
kurt	0.80	0.16	0.00
director	0.70	0.82	0.66
bean	0.70	0.14	0.01
poetry	0.70	0.14	0.00
rebels	0.70	0.14	0.00
thinking	0.60	0.28	0.19
music	0.60	0.24	0.12
grammaton	0.60	0.12	0.00
effects	0.50	0.60	0.27
yeats	0.50	0.10	0.00
theme	0.40	0.22	0.07
wife	0.40	0.16	0.31
viewer	0.40	0.12	0.09
dose	0.40	0.08	0.03
berlin	0.40	0.08	0.01
literature	0.40	0.08	0.01
contraband	0.40	0.08	0.00
orwell	0.40	0.08	0.00
career	0.30	0.18	0.19

# These are identified
important_prevalent_terms = [
    'equilibrium',
    'film',
    'preston',
    'movie',
    'matrix',
    'world',
    'sense',
    'bale',
    'cleric',
    'john',
    'emotion'
]
stemmer = PorterStemmer()
stemmed_important_prevalent_terms = [stemmer.stem(x) for x in important_prevalent_terms]

pd.options.display.float_format = '{:,.2f}'.format
mean_frequencies.fillna(0.0).loc[important_prevalent_terms].round(2).sort_values(['Equilibrium'], ascending=False)

	Equilibrium	All Sci-Fi	All Non-Sci-Fi
equilibrium	8.10	1.64	0.00
film	7.50	5.24	4.02
preston	7.10	1.42	0.00
movie	4.90	2.98	3.22
matrix	3.40	0.80	0.07
world	2.80	1.58	0.59
sense	2.80	1.04	0.41
bale	2.80	0.58	0.01
cleric	2.70	0.58	0.00
john	2.60	1.26	0.19
emotion	2.50	0.60	0.05

TF-IDF Experiment Functions - Text Normalization

def run_tfidf(documents: List[Document],
              clean_func: Callable[[List[Document]], List[TokenizedDocument]],
              important_prevalent_terms: List[str],
              experiment_name: str,
              output_tfidf_vectors: bool=False,
              output_vocabulary: bool=True):
    cleaned_documents = clean_func(documents)
    cleaned_document_text = [' '.join(x.tokens) for x in cleaned_documents]

    vectorizer = TfidfVectorizer(use_idf=True,
                                 ngram_range=(1, 1),
                                 norm=None)

    transformed_documents = vectorizer.fit_transform(cleaned_document_text)
    transformed_documents_as_array = transformed_documents.toarray()

    output_dir = f'output/{experiment_name}_Results'
    if not os.path.exists(output_dir):
        os.makedirs(output_dir)

    if output_tfidf_vectors:
        for counter, doc in enumerate(transformed_documents_as_array):
            tf_idf_tuples = list(zip(vectorizer.get_feature_names_out(), doc))
            one_doc_as_df = pd.DataFrame.from_records(tf_idf_tuples, columns=['term', 'score'])\
                                        .sort_values(by='score', ascending=False)\
                                        .reset_index(drop=True)

            one_doc_as_df.to_csv(f'{output_dir}/{corpus_df["Submission File Name"][counter]}')

    if output_vocabulary:
        with open(f'{output_dir}/vocabulary.txt', 'w') as vocab:
            words = sorted(vectorizer.get_feature_names_out())
            print('\n'.join(words), file=vocab)

    # Create document-term dataframe
    doc_term_matrix = transformed_documents.todense()
    doc_term_df = pd.DataFrame(doc_term_matrix,
                               columns=vectorizer.get_feature_names_out(),
                               index=corpus_df.Doc_ID)
    add_flags(doc_term_df, equilibrium_doc_ids, scifi_doc_ids)

    # Print the top 10 mean TF-IDF values
    top10_tfidf = pd.DataFrame(doc_term_df.mean().sort_values(ascending=False).head(10))
    top10_tfidf.rename(columns={0: 'Mean TF-IDF'}, inplace=True)
    display(top10_tfidf)

    # Collect result into a dataframe
    tfidf_results = pd.DataFrame(index=important_prevalent_terms)

    all_tfidf_results = doc_term_df[[x for x in important_prevalent_terms if x in doc_term_df.columns]].mean().round(2)
    tfidf_results['All Movies'] = all_tfidf_results

    plt.hist(doc_term_df.mean(), 100, range=(0, 8))

    print(f'Vocabulary size: {doc_term_df.shape[1]}')

    descriptors = corpus_df['Descriptor']

    similarities = cosine_similarity(doc_term_df.loc[scifi_doc_ids], doc_term_df.loc[scifi_doc_ids])
    fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(30, 30))
    labels = [descriptors_by_doc_ids[x.doc_id] for x in scifi_documents]
    sns.heatmap(ax=ax, data=similarities, xticklabels=labels, yticklabels=labels)
    #plt.savefig(f'figures/{experiment_name}_heatmap_documents.png')
    plt.show()

TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency)

Experiments, Normalize, Tokenize, Lemmatization and Stop Word Removal

def clean_method(documents: List[Document]) -> List[TokenizedDocument]:
    """
    Normalizes text, tokenizes, lemmatizes, and removes stop words.
    """
    documents = normalize_documents(documents)
    documents = tokenize_documents(documents)
    documents = lemmatize(documents)
    documents = remove_stop_words(documents)
    # documents = stem(documents)

    return documents

run_tfidf(documents, clean_method, important_prevalent_terms, 'TFIDF_exp')

	Mean TF-IDF
time	2.62
make	2.25
action	2.10
scene	2.06
even	2.02
elle	2.01
would	1.99
horror	1.87
batman	1.84
way	1.82

Vocabulary size: 13464

Word2Vec

Word2vec embeddings: https://radimrehurek.com/gensim/models/word2vec.html
This module implements the word2vec family of algorithms, using highly optimized C routines, data streaming and Pythonic interfaces.

Utility Functions For Word2Vec Experiments

def get_word2vec_vectors(documents: List[TokenizedDocument], embedding_size: int) -> pd.DataFrame:
    tokens = [x.tokens for x in documents]

    # https://github.com/RaRe-Technologies/gensim/wiki/Migrating-from-Gensim-3.x-to-4

    # gensim 3.8
    #word2vec_model = Word2Vec(tokens, size=embedding_size, window=3, min_count=1, workers=12)

    # gensim 4.3.1
    word2vec_model = Word2Vec(sentences=tokens, vector_size=embedding_size, window=3, min_count=1, workers=12)

    # gensim 3.8
    #vectors = {}
    #for i in word2vec_model.wv.vocab:
    #    temp_vec = word2vec_model.wv[i]
    #    vectors[i] = temp_vec

    # gensim 4.3.1
    vectors = {}
    for i in word2vec_model.wv.index_to_key:
        temp_vec = word2vec_model.wv[i]
        vectors[i] = temp_vec

    # Changes made:
    #   1. The size parameter in Word2Vec has been renamed to vector_size.
    #   2. Instead of iterating through word2vec_model.wv.vocab, you should now use
    #      word2vec_model.wv.index_to_key to get the list of words in the vocabulary.


    result = pd.DataFrame(vectors).transpose()
    result = result.sort_index()
    return result

def plot_similarity_matrix(data: pd.DataFrame, experiment_name: str, figsize=(25, 25)):
    similarities = cosine_similarity(data, data)
    fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=figsize)
    sns.heatmap(ax=ax, data=similarities, xticklabels=data.index, yticklabels=data.index);
    plt.show()
    #plt.savefig(f'figures/{experiment_name}_heatmap.png')
    plt.close()

def plot_similarity_clustermap(data: pd.DataFrame, experiment_name: str, figsize=(25, 25)):
    similarities = cosine_similarity(data, data)
    cm = sns.clustermap(similarities, metric='cosine', xticklabels=data.index, yticklabels=data.index, method='complete', cmap='RdBu', figsize=figsize)
    cm.ax_row_dendrogram.set_visible(False)
    cm.ax_col_dendrogram.set_visible(False)
    plt.legend(loc='upper left')
    #plt.savefig(f'figures/{experiment_name}_clustermap.png')
    plt.show()
    plt.close()

def plot_tsne(data: pd.DataFrame, perplexity: int, experiment_name: str, figsize=(40, 40)):
    """
    Creates a TSNE plot of the supplied dataframe
    """
    tsne_model = TSNE(perplexity=perplexity, n_components=2, learning_rate='auto', init='pca', n_iter=1000, random_state=32)
    new_values = tsne_model.fit_transform(data)

    x = []
    y = []
    for value in new_values:
        x.append(value[0])
        y.append(value[1])

    plt.figure(figsize=figsize)
    labels = list(data.index)
    for i in range(len(x)):
        new_value = new_values[i]
        x = new_value[0]
        y = new_value[1]

        plt.scatter(x, y)
        plt.annotate(labels[i],
                     xy=(x, y),
                     xytext=(5, 2),
                     textcoords='offset points',
                     ha='right',
                     va='bottom')
    #plt.savefig(f'figures/{experiment_name}_tsne.png')
    plt.show()
    plt.close()

def run_word2vec_experiment(documents: List[Document],
                            clean_func: Callable[[List[Document]], List[TokenizedDocument]],
                            embedding_size: int,
                            chosen_tokens: List[str],
                            experiment_name: str):
    cleaned_documents = clean_func(documents)

    word2vec_df = get_word2vec_vectors(cleaned_documents, embedding_size)
    filtered_word2vec_df = word2vec_df.loc[chosen_tokens].copy()

    plot_tsne(filtered_word2vec_df, 30, experiment_name)
    plot_similarity_matrix(filtered_word2vec_df, experiment_name)
    plot_similarity_clustermap(filtered_word2vec_df, experiment_name)

extra_terms = [
    'equilibrium',
    # 'film',
    'preston',
    # 'movie',
    'matrix',
    'world',
    'sense',
    'bale',
    'cleric',
    'john',
    'emotion'
]

# Get our terms to examine in experiements 4-12
random.seed(10)
all_tokens = get_all_tokens(remove_stop_words(clean_method(documents)))
chosen_tokens = random.choices(all_tokens, k=100 - len(extra_terms)) + extra_terms

lemmatizer = WordNetLemmatizer()
lemmatized_chosen_tokens = [lemmatizer.lemmatize(x) for x in chosen_tokens]
stemmed_chosen_tokens = [stemmer.stem(x) for x in lemmatized_chosen_tokens]

Word2Vec Experiments:

Word2vec embeddings: https://radimrehurek.com/gensim/models/word2vec.html
This module implements the word2vec family of algorithms, using highly optimized C routines, data streaming and Pythonic interfaces.

run_word2vec_experiment(documents, clean_method, 300, chosen_tokens, 'Word2Vec_exp')

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Utility functions for Doc2Vec experiments

Doc2vec Paragraph Embeddings: https://radimrehurek.com/gensim/models/doc2vec.html
Paragraph and document embeddings via the distributed memory and distributed bag of words models from Quoc Le and Tomas Mikolov: “Distributed Representations of Sentences and Documents”.
The algorithms use either hierarchical softmax or negative sampling;

def run_doc2vec(documents: List[TokenizedDocument], embedding_size: int, descriptors_by_doc_ids: Dict[int, str]):
    tagged_documents = [TaggedDocument(document.tokens, [i]) for i, document in enumerate(documents)]
    doc2vec_model = Doc2Vec(tagged_documents, vector_size=embedding_size, window=3, min_count=2, workers=12)

    doc2vec_df = pd.DataFrame()
    for document in documents:
        vector = pd.DataFrame(doc2vec_model.infer_vector(document.tokens)).transpose()
        doc2vec_df = pd.concat([doc2vec_df, vector], axis=0)

    doc2vec_df['Descriptor'] = [descriptors_by_doc_ids[x.doc_id] for x in documents]
    doc2vec_df.set_index(['Descriptor'], inplace=True)
    return doc2vec_df

def run_doc2vec_experiment(documents: List[Document],
                           clean_func: Callable[[List[Document]], List[TokenizedDocument]],
                           embedding_size: int,
                           experiment_name: str):
    cleaned_documents = clean_func(documents)
    doc2vec_df = run_doc2vec(cleaned_documents, embedding_size, descriptors_by_doc_ids)

    plot_similarity_matrix(doc2vec_df, experiment_name)
    plot_similarity_clustermap(doc2vec_df, experiment_name, figsize=(50, 50))
    plot_tsne(doc2vec_df, 30, experiment_name)

Doc2Vec Experiments:

Doc2vec Paragraph Embeddings: https://radimrehurek.com/gensim/models/doc2vec.html
Paragraph and document embeddings via the distributed memory and distributed bag of words models from Quoc Le and Tomas Mikolov: “Distributed Representations of Sentences and Documents”.
The algorithms use either hierarchical softmax or negative sampling;

run_doc2vec_experiment(documents, clean_method, 300, 'Doc2Vec_exp')

WARNING:matplotlib.legend:No artists with labels found to put in legend.  Note that artists whose label start with an underscore are ignored when legend() is called with no argument.